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| Robert Frost Farmland, White Mountain Vistas and Points in Between | The Industrial Revolution is Alive and Well |
 
A river runs through it. That's the reason the Industrial Revolution transformed New Hampshire, turning the clay of the riverbanks into the distinctive red brick mills that now define our cities and turning our patriot farmers – and their daughters – into resilient new Americans.
The Merrimack River is both the most dramatic feature of central New Hampshire and the engine that drove the industrial boom. Drive along Interstate 293 and on the western bank you will see how the surging Merrimack could power the Amoskeag Mills that line the far shore – its 1 million square feet of floor space once made it the largest textile mill in the world. Today the Millyard is home to businesses and artists' lofts. Stop in at the Amoskeag Fishways, a cooperative effort between Public Service of New Hampshire and the NH Fish & Game Department for an underwater view of the river and the fish who have been migrating through its rapids for centuries. A permanent exhibit in the Manchester Millyard Museum – “Woven in Time: 11,000 Years at Amoskeag Falls”– traces the impact of the Merrimack and the Amoskeag Indian tribe the mills honor in their name. A brightly lit cobblestone alley in the museum offers a 19th century replica of Downtown Manchester’s Elm Street complete with shops. Modern day Downtown Manchester is now the prime address for a thriving complement of shops, restaurants, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Baseball Stadium and the Verizon Wireless Arena. Also in historic Downtown Manchester is the beautifully restored Palace Theatre, a venue for headliner performing arts, concerts, plays and readings. From Manchester, continue north to Laconia where the former sock-knitting Belknap Mills complex is now preserved as a Meeting House and museum. Or drive west along Route 101 to Peterborough, where you’ll find shops and an old woolen mill turned cafe at Noone Falls.
 Heading east on Route 4, you'll discover Dover on the eastern shore of the Piscataqua River. The Cocheco Mills that today form the red brick heart of the city have pumped much of its lifeblood too, ever since Dover's mills were built starting in 1812. Once the calico cloth capital of the state, the Cocheco Mills offered hundreds of Yankee girls (and their Irish successors) a step up from the farm and provided a respected living wage and secure new friendships in the boarding houses that lined the streets. Now the mills along the Dover waterfront that once welcomed gundalow ship cargoes of cotton, iron and coal for the factories are filling with new entrepreneurial enthusiasm. Restaurateurs, artisans and museums are drawn to the great beamed, brick spaces. Once again the railroad – in the form of a new Amtrak stop – adds to the city's enthusiasm and energy. From any vantage point you can practically watch the new Dover rise from the past. Stop into the Cocheco Falls Millworks to find some of that new spirit as well as a mural, ”Weaving Through Time,” that celebrates the city's past. The central panel illustrates the moment when the Dover mill girls of the Industrial Revolution gave the nation one of New Hampshire's lessons in rugged Yankee individualism. In 1828, a new breed of owners cut their wages and imposed new rules, so the women of the Mills went on strike – the first all-female strike in American history. Raise a glass to them in one of Dover's great dining spots as you watch the setting sun turn the bricks to gold. |
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