Art Discussion:A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch) and short story
Works of Art:
One September night a family had gathered round their hearth, and piled it high with . . . the splintered ruins of great trees that had come crashing down the precipice. . . . This family were situated in the Notch of the White Hills, where the wind was sharp throughout the year. . . . They dwelt in a cold spot and a dangerous one; for a mountain towered above their heads, so steep that the stones would often rumble down its sides and startle them at midnight.
. . . the wind came through the Notch and seemed to pause before their cottage—rattling the door, with a sound of wailing and lamentation, before it passed into the valley. For a moment it saddened them. . . . But the family were glad again when they perceived that the latch was lifted by some traveler, whose footsteps had been unheard amid the dreary blast which heralded his approach, and wailed as he was entering, and went moaning away from the door.
Thomas Cole,A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch) (1839)
Though they dwelt in such a solitude, these people held daily converse with the world. The romantic pass of the Notch is a great artery, through which the lifeblood of internal commerce is continually throbbing between Maine, on one side, and the Green Mountains and the shores of the St. Lawrence, on the other. The stagecoach always drew up before the door of the cottage. The wayfarer, with no companion but his staff, paused here to exchange a word, that the sense of loneliness might not utterly overcome him ere he could pass through the cleft of the mountain. . . . It was one of those primitive taverns where the traveler pays only for food and lodging, but meets with a homely kindness beyond all price. . . .
The frank-hearted stranger had just drawn his chair to the fire when something like a heavy footstep was heard without, rushing down the steep side of the mountain, as with long and rapid strides, and taking such a leap in passing the cottage as to strike the opposite precipice. The family held their breath, because they knew the sound. . .
“The old mountain has thrown a stone at us, for fear we should forget him,” said the landlord, recovering himself. “He sometimes nods his head and threatens to come down. . .”
The secret of the young man’s character was a high and abstracted ambition. He could have borne to live an undistinguished life, but not to be forgotten in the grave. . .
“As yet,” cried the stranger,—his cheek glowing and his eye flashing with enthusiasm,— “as yet, I have done nothing.Were I to vanish from the earth to-morrow, none would know so much of me as you: that a nameless youth came up at nightfall from the valley of the Saco, and opened his heart to you in the evening, and passed through the Notch by sunrise, and was seen no more. Not a soul would ask, 'Who was he? Whither did the wanderer go?’ But I cannot die till I have achieved my destiny. Then, let Death come! I shall have built my monument!”
. . . a sound abroad in the night, rising like the roar of a blast, had grown broad, deep, and terrible. . . . The house and all within it trembled; the foundations of the earth seemed to be shaken. . . . Young and old exchanged one wild glance, and remained an instant, pale, affrighted, without utterance, or power to move. Then the same shriek burst simultaneously from all their lips. ”The Slide! The Slide!”. . .
The victims rushed from their cottage, and sought refuge in what they deemed a safer spot. . . . Alas! They had quitted their security, and fled right into the pathway of destruction. Down came the whole side of the mountain, in a cataract of ruin. Just before it reached the house, the stream broke into two branches— shivered not a window there, but overwhelmed the whole vicinity, blocked up the road, and annihilated everything in its dreadful course. . . the victims were at peace. Their bodies were never found. . . .
The story has been told far and wide, and will forever be a legend of these mountains. . . .
Excerpts from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Ambitious Guest,” from Twice-Told Tales (1837)
In the first half of the nineteenth century, many settlers moved from farms and towns on the eastern seaboard to seek their livelihoods in the mountains and on the western frontier. One such family was the Samuel Willeys who settled in Crawford Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Their reason for choosing this location may have been that the notch, one of three deep valleys in the area, was an important route through the mountains and had a turnpike by 1804. The Willeys met a terrible fate in an avalanche. The tragic events were recorded in numerous short stories, poems, and paintings. The tale became a popular one for the American people because the young nation had a short history and few stories of its own.
The avalanche occurred on August 29, 1826. An unusually hot and dry summer made the slopes of the notch susceptible to slides. A sudden downpour broke loose a stream of rock and debris that descended two thousand feet toward the Willey house. The family, hearing the noise, fled their home looking for a safer haven. Unfortunately, they ran directly into the avalanche that, ironically, missed the house completely.
The avalanche inspired a number of writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), who was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts. The success of Twice-Told Tales, a collection of stories, including “The Ambitious Guest” about the tragedy at Crawford Notch, established his reputation as a writer. Hawthorne took the well-known facts of the Willey disaster and added a character who had not been part of the actual event; the “ambitious guest,” a young traveler on his way to seek fame and fortune, who stops for the night at the Willey home. The irony in Hawthorne’s story was that the guest did not live to see his ambitions realized, for he perished with the family.
Thomas Cole, America’s leading landscape painter during the first half of the nineteenth century, had been to the notch several times. He emigrated from England with his family in 1801 and eventually settled in Catskill, New York, a small village on the west side of the Hudson River and close to the Catskill Mountains. Scenery from across the northeast provided inspiration for many of his paintings. In 1828 he traveled to Crawford Notch and wrote in his diary:
We now entered the Notch, and felt awestruck as we passed between the bare and rifted mountains. . . . The site of the Willie [sic] House standing with a little patch of green in the midst [of] the dread wilderness of desolation called to mind the horrors of that night. . . when these mountains were deluged and rocks and trees were hurled from their high places down the steep channelled sides of the mountains. . . .
Cole did not show the actual disaster or the Willey House. Instead he painted the scene as he found it. Cole did include the bare areas on Mount Webster where the landslide started, as well as the well-known Notch House, an inn built on the site two years after the tragedy. Rather than concentrating on the human drama, the artist painted a vast landscape to underscore humankind’s insignificance and vulnerability in the face of nature. Only the storm clouds looming over the mountain hint of something sinister.
Discussion Questions:
The painting and folk tale tell two different stories of Crawford Notch. Two years after the tragedy, what was Cole interested in describing? (The site’s physical appearance.) How did he hint that something bad happened? What was Hawthorne interested in describing? (The hours leading up to the avalanche, the characters, and the event itself) How does Hawthorne hint that something bad is going to happen?
Both the painting and story emphasize the vastness and power of nature. How did Cole make the landscape seem vast? (Large tree in the foreground and small horse-drawn carriage in the background make the distance between seem great. Horse and rider are tiny compared to the rest of the landscape.) What descriptive words does Hawthorne use to make nature seem powerful? (“A mountain towered above their heads,” “great trees came crashing down,” “stones would often rumble down its sides,” “something like a heavy footstep was heard,” the wind “wailed” and “moaned,” etc.)
What other elements do Cole’s painting and Hawthorne’s story have in common? (Stagecoach, a lone traveler, the power and immensity of nature.)
Why did people in the nineteenth century move from cities to less populated areas such as Crawford Notch? (Inexpensive land, independence, didn’t like settled communities, adventure, etc.)
Describe the geography of Crawford Notch by looking at the painting. Why might the Willeys have chosen this spot to live and work? (A valley protected by mountains, a trade route ran through the pass making it a good location for an inn.)
Both the painting and the short story tell you about a mode of transportation that was common in the 1830s. What is it? (Stagecoach) How is it similar to or different from transportation you might take today?
What is something new this painting and folk tale have taught you about life in the nineteenth century?
Thomas Cole,A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch), 1839, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Fund
