History & Culture
The culture and heritage of the Northern Forest grow from the
forest itself and from people's intimate connections to the land.
Folksongs and storytelling, art forms in themselves, keep the
region’s history alive, and skilled craftspeople pass on traditions
such as woodworking, basketmaking, spinning and weaving.
Hunting, fishing, skiing and other outdoor activities remain
an important part of life in the Northern Forest, and opportunities
for adventure draw visitors and new residents to the region.
The landscape and the experience of wilderness have inspired
great poets, philosophers, authors and painters— including Robert
Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Louise Dickinson Rich, Sarah Orne
Jewett, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederic Church—and all of us
who venture into woods.
The evolution of how people use the forest—from subsistence
hunting to felling the tallest pines for the King’s mast trees;
from the birth of the commercial timber industry and the great
log drives to the region’s heyday as the lumber and papermaking
capital of the world; from the initial exploration of its great
wilderness to the establishment of some of the nation’s first
great protected places, including the White Mountains and Adirondacks—has
shaped and colored the culture of the Northern Forest. In each
era, communities have grown up around these dominant activities
and adapted as new activities took hold.
Download “A Brief History of the Northern Forest”
in PDF format [108 KB].
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