Notchland Inn

A historic inn nestled in Crawford Notch, built on the private grounds where Nancy Barton's grave lies beside the brook that bears her name.

A tombstone sits in the front parlor of the Notchland Inn, inscribed with words that have haunted Crawford Notch for nearly 250 years: "1778. Nancy Barton. Died in a snowstorm in pursuit of her faithless lover." The granite mansion that houses the inn was built in the 1860s by Dr. Samuel Bemis, a Boston dentist and pioneering daguerreotypist who retired to the White Mountains and constructed his home from stone quarried on his own land along the Sawyer River. Bemis completed the mansion around 1870, and it stands today on 100 acres in the heart of Crawford Notch, surrounded by the White Mountain National Forest. The front parlor was later designed by Gustav Stickley, one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement, giving the inn's interior a refinement that contrasts sharply with the wild grief embedded in its most famous artifact.

Nancy Barton was sixteen years old in 1778, working as a servant on Colonel Joseph Whipple's farm in Jefferson, New Hampshire. She fell in love with Jim Swindell, one of the hired hands, and the two became engaged. While Nancy was away making arrangements for their life together, Colonel Whipple reportedly convinced Jim to abandon her, take her dowry money, and enlist in the colonial army. Jim spent Nancy's savings on a new uniform and fled south through Crawford Notch.

When Nancy returned and discovered the betrayal, she set out on foot in pursuit, despite the pleas of neighbors who warned that winter travel through the Notch was suicidal. She hiked alone into Crawford Notch during a fierce winter storm. A search party eventually found her seated beside a brook, her head resting on her hand and walking stick, her clothes stiff with ice. She had frozen to death. The landscape itself absorbed her tragedy: the brook where she died became Nancy Brook, which flows from Nancy Pond atop Nancy Mountain. Nancy Falls and Nancy Cascades also bear her name. Her faithless lover, upon hearing of her death, reportedly went insane and died a few years later.

The Notchland Inn has operated as a lodging establishment since the 1920s, and guests have reported paranormal encounters that seem tied to multiple spirits. The most documented incident involved a couple who took a mid-afternoon nap and awoke to find the name "Abigail" written in steam on the bathroom mirror -- though no one had used the bath in hours. The mystery deepened two years later when an old box was discovered in the attic containing letters written in the mid-1800s, full of biblical quotations, signed by an "Abigail Jones." Another guest woke from a nap to find fresh flowers in the room and "Happy Anniversary" written on the mirror in lipstick. When he returned to the bedroom, the flowers had vanished, and when he looked back at the bathroom, the writing had disappeared.

Nancy Brook flows along one border of the property, its waters still carrying the sound of something that could be wind through the Notch -- or could be the last breath of a girl who refused to let betrayal go unanswered.