Hannah Duston Memorial

A State Park it is not!
But it does appear on NH's list of State Parks so we're counting it!

• Tucker’s Rating – a definite 2 wags. He had fun running around and sniffing
• Our Rating – 1.5 wags, and that extra half wag is only in honor of poor Hannah. An amazon of her time who murdered her captors and escaped with two others to return to her family and friends… back in 1697!!!!
• Pet Friendly – Yes
• Accessibility – Steep walkway and access across a railroad bridge so not the best for a wheelchair or when the way is covered with ice.
• Fees – Totally free. It's in a park 'n ride, how could they charge?
  
  
  While it’s listed under NH State Parks, the Hannah Duston Memorial is not a park. There is no signage except a plain brown sign stating “Path to Memorial Statue”, no separate parking, no State Park sign or even memorial sign to tell you WHAT memorial you’re seeing… and when you get off the highway there are no signs directing you as far as which way to go, or where to stop! Not that any of those things denote a State Park, but we come to expect a certain amount of information to be provided when we're heading to a park, and with this one we were sorely disappointed.

A Lonely Woman Isn't Hard to Find... or Is She?
We knew the statue was near the river, and we knew to drive towards Boscawen…. We saw Hannah Duston Drive and pulled into a Park ‘n Ride just past that street, and there at the back corner was a break in the metal lot barriers, and the lone brown sign at the top of an ice covered path. We walked down the path past what looked like a transfer station (piles of sand, trash, trucks, etc) and came to a walkway that led up a hill and towards the river. People had dumped trash next to the path but we saw footprints in the snow so we walked up the hill… nice view of the river, but no memorial… back to the path and Beth saw a bridge to the left… OK, it’s actually a railroad bridge with a narrow walkway along the side so we headed over and not too far beyond the bridge we came upon Hannah’s statue. Quite an imposing one actually, although sad that it does include graffiti, and someone obviously broke off Hannah’s nose which has since been replaced with a darker color granite. So there she stands, looking ferocious all alone in the woods next to a railroad track and a river. The NH State Parks website refers to the area as a pretty picnic site… it’d need to be a sight cleaner and have an actual picnic table to qualify as this in my book. No special signs to explain who she was or what she did or why there was a statue set up in her honor either. We did a bit of research on that and found conflicting stories…. But our summary:

Hannah's Story
In Haverhill, MA on a night (or early morning) in March 1697, just a week after giving birth to her twelfth child, Martha, at the age of FORTY (who says women only had kids in their teens back then, and were considered old when they hit 30?) Hannah Duston’s home was attacked by a tribe of Abenaki Indians. She was in no condition to run, so she sent her children and husband to the local garrison to safety and stayed at the house with the baby’s nurse, Mary Neff. Both Hannah and Mary were kidnapped along with Martha, but because Martha was slowing down the progress of the group, the Indians took the baby and smashed her head against a tree to get rid of her (gruesome and this story has haunted me since I first heard about Hannah Duston many years ago). A family group of the Indians then took Mary, and Hannah and a 14 year old boy they’d picked up in Worcester about a year and a half earlier and headed north along the Merrimack River. They stopped on an island (presumably the one where the statue now stands) and in a few days Hannah, Mary and the young boy Samuel plotted to kill their captors. One night, when all were sleeping, they had their chance. In a matter of minutes Hannah, Mary and Samuel attacked and all the indians were killed. The threesome stole one canoe and scuttled the rest… they headed out on the river for home, but Hannah realized no one would believe their story (and because Indian scalps brought a reward) she returned to the site and scalped them all, keeping the scalps safe in a piece of cloth. They traveled by night and hid during the day along the river. Eventually they arrived in Hudson, NH and were reunited with their families. Interesting to note that Hannah’s husband went with her to Boston after her return, to request a special payment on the scalps that she had collected. A bounty had been set on indian scalps because of all the problems settlers were having with the indians. Some records show that the bounty had been reduced before the event, but when her account of the capture was revealed, including the fact that they had killed her child, the courts decided to pay her 50 pounds for the scalps.

Other Resources, Other Versions
There are many sites that go into far greater detail about this event including Wikipedia, one sponsored by Hannah’s own descendents, and one written by a guy out in Seattle. His approaches Hannah's story from a totally modern perspective, and had us laughing out loud! Not that her story is funny, but the modern twist really paints her like a comic book hero, including her in the "badass of the week" list!

There are actually two statues of Hannah. The one in Haverhill, MA is a bit different and provides more detail. It is supposedly the first statue in the country commemorating a woman and was originally erected in 1874. The Garrison House the family escaped to is also still standing in Haverhill, MA and there is a museum which may be located in the garrison however we couldn’t tell this from the website. If we have a chance later this year, we’ll make a visit to Haverhill to tie all these pieces together!

We’d recommend this location as one to stop by if only for curiousity. It’s definitely not a destination park and doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to see, but if you’re on your way up to the Lakes during the summer, spring or fall, or going to a concert at Meadowbrook, it’s worth a stop on the way. This isn't really much of a park for winter.

We continued our day with a drive to Laconia to visit my friend Nancy and had a great lunch and chance to catch up! Not the most eventful of Park trips, but it's another one to cross of our list! If you've been to this memorial and have additional notes to add, please feel free to contribute!