The Largest Developed State Park In New Hampshire With Over 10,000 Acres Of Land Offering Visitors A Quiet Getaway
For most of the year, Bear Brook State Park offers visitors a quiet getaway just minutes from two of New Hampshire’s largest cities. “We have more than 10,000 acres here,” park manager Greg Preville tells The Buzz. “Most of it is forest, mixed hard and soft woods. We’ve got water all over the place - lakes, brooks, bogs, swamps, ponds. Bear Brook is the largest developed state park in the New Hampshire system.”
The park is divided into a number of areas that guests can enjoy. A day use area centers on Catamount Pond, where a picnic area, large pavilion and beach are popular with locals who flock here in summer. About five miles away, a 101-site campground sits on Beaver Pond, with its own beach and boat rentals. Archery Pond, in between the two, is the heart of a wildlife refuge under the supervision of N.H. Fish & Game. The complex includes an archery range and a catch-and-release fly fishing pond, stocked with rainbow, brook and brown trout, as well as a special fishing pond for kids. More than 40 miles of multi-use trails lace the 10,000 acres, open to hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers.
“We draw quite a mountain biking crowd,” Preville says. “Over the last decade we’ve become popular with the bikers from Manchester and Concord, which are just a half hour away. NEMBA [New England Mountain Biking Association] has been working with the state to get more trails. We probably have 50 to 60 miles now.”
Come winter, Bear Brook shifts gears. Although the campground is closed, families visit to ice skate on the ponds, and the mountain bikers switch to fat tire bikes. The trails open up to x-country skiers and snowshoers, as well as snowmobiles and other motorized sports vehicles, including ATVs and motocross bikes. “We have a massive parking lot we open up in winter,” Preville says. “When we get a good snow pack, we’re very popular with snowmobilers. Otherwise, it’s ATVS and other off-road stuff.”
Winter is also hunting season within the park. “We have a lot of wildlife,” Preville says. “Deer are the most numerous, but we have black bear, turkey, moose, even squirrel hunting. Around Archery Pond, in the wildlife refuge portion of the park, only bow hunting for deer is allowed.” He cautions that each species has separate seasons and licences, available from N.H. Fish & Game.
While Bear Brook’s major appeal is its outdoor riches, history buffs will find plenty to interest them, too. “This was a Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] camp in the late 1930s, before it was a state park,” Preville explains. “The CCC built a lot of our infrastructure including stone bridges, pavilions, bathhouses, and the whole day use area. They even dammed the stream to create Catamount Pond.”
Along with the impressive stone work for which the CCC is famous, the Corps left behind a many of the wooden buildings used for housing. “These things were meant to be temporary,” Preville says. “But they’re still standing strong after 70 plus years.”
A half-dozen of the old CCC barracks close to the park entrance house the park’s Museum Complex. The Richard Diehl Civilian Conservation Corps Museum tells the story of the CCC’s history in the area. “It’s set up with beds, dishes, tools,” Preville says. “You can see what these guys were working with.”
The Museum Complex also houses the New Hampshire Antique Snowmobile Museum. “They’ve got a lot of old sleds in there,” Preville says. “One looks like a Model T with skis on the front.”
The area’s history didn’t begin with the CCC, however. The main road of the park once ran through the center of the town of Allenstown, NH. The Old Allenstown Meeting House, built in 1815, sits across the street from the Museum Complex. Armand Verville and his wife Claudette are active members of the Allenstown Historical Society, which restored the building.
“In 1876, everyone in the town moved four miles away to work in the mills,” Armand explains. “They left the meeting house behind.” According to Verville, the building weathered many challenges during its 200 years. “We almost lost it in the Gale Winds of 1815. In 1908, the Daughters of the American Revolution restored it. Then in 1985 an arsonist tried to burn it down and the DAR didn’t have the money to rebuild. In 2003, our Historical Society got involved. It took 10 years and three Moose Grants [funds earmarked for historical preservation raised through license plate sales], but we got it completely restored in time for the 200th anniversary celebration in 2015.”
The building is unique, according to Claudette Verville, archivist of the Historical Society. “It’s the only one-story slanted-floor meeting house left in New England,” she explains. “A lot inside survived the fire. We have the original pews, the box pulpit and an old reed pump organ. Kids carved graffiti on the backs of the benches during the long sermons and some of them are really very clever.” The box pews around the outside walls belonged to individual families and still bear their name plates. “A lot of descendants come to visit,” Claudette continues. “The DAR holds a service here every August. It puts a happy face on the old meeting house.” Volunteers from the DAR and the Student Conservation Association offer tours of the meeting house, as well as the other museums, during the summer months.
Although Bear Brook hosts some 30,000 visitors during its May to October summer season, Greg Preville says there’s still plenty of room to get out into nature. “To be out here and not see another person, that’s what’s special,” he says. “My favorite place is an old Adirondack-style shelter built by the CCC out on Pond. It’s so quiet, and a great place to see wildlife.”
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
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Bear Brook State Park, with over 10,000 acres and the largest developed state park in New Hampshire. Located in the southeast region of the state, there is plenty to do and see for everyone. Hiking, biking, swimming and fishing are a few of the favorites.