Odiorne Point State Park
|
Odiorne Point State Park
|
||
| location | Rockingham County in New Hampshire (USA) | |
| surface | 134 ha | |
| Geographical location | 43 ° 2 ' N , 70 ° 43' W | |
|
||
| Setup date | 1962 | |
| administration | NH Department of Resources and Economic Development | |
The Odiorne Point State Park is a State Park in Rockingham County of the US state of New Hampshire . Odiorne Point was the first European settlement in New Hampshire. The park is a popular day trip destination.
.jpg)
geography
The 134 acre park is three miles south of Portsmouth on the New Hampshire coast near Little Harbor . The park contains the longest undeveloped stretch of New Hampshire's 18 miles (29 km) coastline. Off the coast lies the Sunken Forest , the remnants of a forest that was flooded by the rise in sea levels at the end of the last ice age around 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. At low tide, the Sunken Forest is barely visible. The park contains several different ecosystems. The tidal pools of the Sunken Forest lie in front of the rocky coast in the southern park area . To the north of it is a pebble beach with an adjacent freshwater swamp. At Frost Point, where a pier extends into Little Harbor, is a small area of sand dunes. At Little Harbor, Seavey Creek flows through salt marshes. The inland has been densely overgrown with trees and bushes since the Second World War. The concrete bunkers of the former Fort Dearborn are still under thickly overgrown mounds of earth, and the remains of field boundaries, gardens and an artificial pond are still visible.
history
.jpg)
History until 1941
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the land was inhabited in the summer by the Indians of the Penacook tribe and other Abenaki tribes who called it Pannaway . 1623 sailed David Thompson of commissioned Plymouth Council for New England on the sailing ship Jonathan to New England and founded in the late Odiorne Point a settlement. In 1660 John Odiorne came to the settlement and built a farm on the coast. The farmland remained in the possession of his descendants until World War II. By the early 18th century the settlement was well established, but the administrative and commercial center had moved to the deeper harbor of Strawberry Banke, now Portsmouth. The farms at Odiorne Point provided food to the Port of Portsmouth for over 150 years.
After the Civil War , the farms on the coast gave way to summer houses and hotels, including the Grand Hotel Sagamore House . Odiorne Point has been a popular vacation spot for decades, with manicured gardens and tree-lined streets.
Fort Dearborn
The Second World War brought radical changes to this landscape: in 1942, the owners between Little Harbor and Sunken Forest had to sell their properties to the federal government in order to build a coastal fortification to protect the harbor and the naval shipyard of Portsmouth . The residents had to leave the country within a month. The site at Odiorne Point was chosen because the existing older coastal forts were too small for the new guns or were being used for other military tasks. In 1942, four 15.5 cm guns were set up at Frost Point, as long as the two actual main batteries with two 15.2 cm guns and two 40.6 cm guns were under construction. In addition to the heavy coastal artillery with a range of up to 40 kilometers, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns, ammunition magazines, searchlights and radar antennas were built. Corrugated iron huts were set up as accommodation for the service teams, and some of the former summer houses served as officers' quarters. With the exception of a building called Sugden House and the farmhouse of the Odiornes , the summer houses and hotels on the coast were demolished, instead the bunkers and artillery positions were planted with shrubs and climbing plants to camouflage the sea. The fort was named in 1943 after Major General Henry Dearborn from Rockingham County , US Secretary of War from 1801 to 1809. In June 1944 the two batteries were completed. The heavy artillery trial rounds were the only ones ever fired from Fort Dearborn. After that the heavy guns were no longer used.
After the war, the light guns were dismantled and stored in 1946. In 1948 the fort was deactivated and all guns were dismantled, in 1949 the fort was abandoned. Parts of the site were sold, but not to the former owners. Part of the fort was handed over to the New Hampshire National Guard, the US Air Force took over 18 acres on which they built the Rye Air Force Station, a radar in support of Portsmouth Air Force Base in Newington . The Air Force personnel was relocated in 1957, but the Air Force retained the right to use the radar antennas until 1968.
Use as a state park
In 1961, New Hampshire State bought the site to use it as a state park. In 1962 the area was opened to the public and named Fort Dearborn State Park . From 1971 to 1976 the corrugated iron huts and the other remaining military structures were demolished and the concrete bunkers and gun emplacements filled in. The park was renamed Odiorne Point State Park to emphasize the park's focus on nature and officially opened in 1973. The former Air Force fire station served as the first visitor center until 1976 when it was moved to Sugden House. In 1992 the house was expanded to become the Seacost Science Center, which now also serves as a visitor center. In 1993, the park was expanded to its current size of 134 hectares through purchase.
Tourist facilities
The park is open all year round and there is a fee to visit. The park has picnic areas, toilet facilities and a boat ramp on the beach. Scuba divers can dive offshore in the Sunken Forest. Partly paved footpaths and bike paths lead through the park. In winter the paths are groomed as trails. The park is home to the Seacost Science Center , part of the National Audubon Society , which offers hands-on tide pools, a saltwater aquarium, and exhibits on the history and nature of Odiorne Point. It offers information events and guided tours for school classes and the general public. Some of the gun emplacements were exposed again in 1988 and can be viewed, but have been badly damaged by vandalism. The Odiornes' former farmhouse, built in 1800, is a State Historic Site and is used as the administrative building of the New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation.
Individual evidence
- ^ History of Fort Dearborn. Retrieved February 27, 2011 .
- ^ NH State Register of Historic Places. Retrieved February 27, 2011 .
