A few years ago, redemption came to fans of Todd Rundgren when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However, it didn’t culminate years of Rundgren calling “Hello, It’s Me” to the Rock Hall — far from it. He didn’t seek the accolade, and bowed out of the induction ceremony due to a show on the same night, four hours away in Cincinnati.
To call him an iconoclast is an understatement. Rundgren has charted his own course from early in his career. He became a producer when most people barely knew what that was, because he realized the guy his label hired to supervise the first album of his band The Nazz was a bean counter who either didn’t care about their album’s sound or couldn’t bring it off.
One of his first assignments was The Band’s Stage Fright album. He went on to produce Grand Funk, Hall & Oates, XTC and many others. Music became a side hustle for Rundgren as a result, as his main source of income was so lucrative. His take from Meatloaf’s 1978 LP Bat Out of Hell bought him a house in Hawaii.
That said, he’s made a lot of records over the years, and some of them have produced hits like “Bang On the Drum” and “Can We Still Be Friends?” The difference is he does them to please himself, not the critics or label executives.
“I’ve essentially cultivated an audience that helps me survive in the music business,” Rundgren said from his home in Kaua’i. “I’ve never had the expectations that I should be recognized, I do it for my own purposes. I’m grateful to have an audience for it, but I never had the expectation that it’s going to be hugely successful.”
Younger listeners bored with mainstream pop have lately found albums like 1972’s A Wizard, A True Star, and Nearly Human, a 1989 record that was his last with a charting single. For Rundgren, seeing these new fans at shows is equally gratifying and bewildering. “They’re coming at it more from the place I came to it from, which is I’m making a historical document,” he said. “It’ll be there long after I’m gone.”
Rundgren is less sanguine about contemporary music. “The most successful so-called musical artists today are pole dancers,” he observed. “They don’t intend to remain in music, they all want to eventually have acting careers … now you get famous for being famous. In that sense there is a lot of what’s called music that really doesn’t qualify, at least to me.”
He recently re-launched a service begun in the 1990s as PatroNet to help independent artists.
The newly named Global Nation’s goal “is to give creative people a maximum amount of freedom,” he said. “First of all, to create what they want, and have it appear exactly as they’ve created it … we’ve standardized the display to be essentially a virtual HDTV. So it looks the same no matter what you play it on — and you can play it on HDTV.”
Critically, the service helps creators keep most of the money.
“Instead of you getting the short end of the stick after Apple Store takes theirs and the publisher takes theirs and you wind up with 30 percent of the cost of the subscription, we want that to be closer to 80 percent,” he said, adding the Global Nation is presently in soft launch mode. “We are on the air; we’re just not aggressively pushing it.”
At Rundgren’s upcoming Me/We Tour stop in Nashua on Oct. 16, he’ll draw from a deep catalog, while saving his biggest hits like “I Saw the Light,” “Hello It’s Me” and “The Last Ride” for the encore. Fans of deep cuts like “I Think You Know” and “Woman’s World” will be happy with the setlist.
“It’s a fixed set list so people can have the confidence that if there’s a song they want to hear that I played before, they will hear it,” he said. “If they need to know beforehand, they can probably look up the set list and find out.”
Todd Rundgren Me/We When: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m. Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua Tickets: $59 and up at etix.com
Featured photo: Todd Rundgren. Photo by Rex Rundgren.
The 2024 Mount Uncanoonuc Brewfest raises funds for veterans
For Brian Hansen, the organizer of the Mount Uncanoonuc Brewfest, part of what makes his annual event a party is the music.
“I’m a music snob,” he said, “a music connoisseur. The first year [of the Brewfest] we had a straight up garage rock ’n’ roll band that kicked butt…”
For this year’s Brewfest, the third annual event, the band Erin Og is slated to perform “legitimate Irish drinking tunes,” according to the website. The event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Mountain Brew Base Brewery in Goffstown.
“Every year … we have about probably 20 local breweries,” Hansen said, “all within probably an hour of Manchester. What they do is they come in and they give you sample sizes of all different kinds of brews. So anybody can try like 50 different kinds of beers. Each brewery brings a couple different kinds so it’s many, many different flavors.”
Hansen’s goal is to raise money to support a nonprofit organization he founded, The Worker Bee Fund (workerbeefund.org). “All of the money, 100 percent of the profits that we make go to fixing up houses for disabled veterans,” he said. “We get referrals from the VA and [other veterans’ groups]. And they let us know about people who need new, you know, wheelchair-accessible ramps or wheelchair-accessible kitchens or, you know, bathtubs with handles on them or new roofs or new windows. Basically, we work … for people who really can’t afford these things themselves. And we do them 100 percent for free. We provide all the labor, we provide all the materials, I raise all the money, and part of the money is this fundraiser.”
Hansen said the Brewfest started with an entirely hypothetical conversation.
“When [Mountain Base Brewery] first opened up a few years ago, I walked in and was hanging out with Jim [Mountain Base owner James Henderson], and Jim was like, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of maybe having a brew fest,’ and we got to talking about it. And I was like, ‘Jim, be careful, man. If you put an idea in my head, I’ll actually do it’. And he was like, ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.’ So here we are.”
Four hundred people came to last year’s Brewfest. This year, Hansen and co-organizer Candice Pendagast expect an even bigger crowd, with more members of the brewing community pitching in.
“I have a good list here,” Pendagast said. “We’re still confirming breweries right now, and we confirmed someone else today, a winery, Hermit Woods Winery. We’re really excited because this is the first time we’ve ever had a craft cocktail and the first time we’ve ever had a winery.”
The Festival will have several food trucks on site.
“We are bringing in Smokin’ Trolly Catering,” Pendagast said. “She has been here in the past with her food trolley. She does all kinds of great barbecue food. We’ve added Colombian food this year with Cali Arepa NH, and we also have homemade lemonade, which will be nice for our designated drivers.”
Pendagast said she expects things to run smoothly, now that she and Hansen have a couple of years’ experience under their belts. “The first year we kind of went in blind,” she remembered. “We really didn’t know how many volunteers we would need. So that first year was kind of fun because I would be pouring for one table over here and then another table on the other side and people would be like, ‘Wait a minute, weren’t you just over there?’”
Mount Uncanoonuc Brewfest When: Saturday, Oct. 19, from 1 to 5 p.m. Where: in the parking lot of Mountain Base Brewery, 553 Mast Road, No. 111, Goffstown, (935-7132, mountainbasebrewery.com). Tickets: $35 in advance at workerbeefund.org/events, or $45 at the gate. All profits go to support the Worker Bee Fund, workerbeefund.org. The Brewfest is still confirming participating brewers, but right now, they include Henniker Brewing Co., Pipe Dream Brewing, Stark Brewing Co., Feathered Friend Brewing, Hoptimistic Brewing, Liquid Therapy, Able Ebenezer Brewing Co., Spyglass Brewing Co., Concord Craft Brewing, Hobbs Brewing Co., Last Chair Brewery, Buena Gave Tequila Cocktails, and Hermit Hills Winery.
Celebrate fall in Warner Friday, Oct. 11, through Sunday, Oct. 13, for the 77th Warner Fall Foliage Festival.
“The historical part of the festival, this is the 77th year that it’s been going on. It’s a festival to celebrate the fall, number one. It’s always on Columbus Day weekend on just Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday,” said Ray Martin, a former Festival president and trove of knowledge on the Festival and how it operates. “It’s historically always been volunteer-run, volunteer-staffed with townspeople, and it raises money every year for various organizations within the town …”
Besides the beautiful scenery, what is there for visitors to do?
“It is a festival with amusement rides, a lot, I think we have almost 100 craftspeople, various sorts. It has food, a lobster and chicken barbecue and other sorts of food. It has a grand parade, a road race, a children’s race…,” Martin said.
The Warner Fall Foliage Festival is also free. “There’s no admission charge, but we do charge for parking if you go out to one of the outlying parking areas. So it’s really just a celebration of fall with the typical festival type things of food, crafts, people, amusement rides, and an oxen pull and a woodsman’s contest. The oxen pull is all day Saturday. The woodsman’s contest is all Sunday, all day. And there’s a grand parade on Sunday…,” Martin said.
The parade will celebrate Warner’s founding with leafy floats. “Every year it has a different theme. And this year people put in floats involving foliage. And the main thing is how much foliage you can use or how you use it creatively. This year is Warner’s 250th anniversary of the founding or the chartering of the town in 1774.”
Martin expects 10 to 15 floats as well as “some old cars and tractors and marching band and the Highland Scotsman bagpiping group.”
Music is a major component in celebrating the harvest season in Warner.
“There’s music at a tent right beside the Reed’s North bar and restaurant that has music … and then they’ve got a stage behind, more of a main street stage, that has an outdoor amphitheater that has the same scheduled music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Martin said.
And then there’s the food.
“And then the other thing is the lobster or chicken barbecue that’s been going on for a long time and that drives a lot of people in. So those two things are great and consistent. It’s just one family that’s been doing [the barbecue] for 50 years, They’re on about the third generation,” Martin said.
The kids get involved too. “There’s a children’s parade, a children’s short run walk, and the activities for the kids are all the rides.”
How did Martin come to be involved with the festival in the first place? “If you live in town, you eventually will be asked to help. Most people always step up. It’s a very community-oriented event that does raise anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a year to distribute.”
Since “foliage” is in the name, what types of tree leaves will visitors be able to view? “Oh, we have all the hardwood trees. It’s maple trees, then oak trees, maybe a few ash trees if they’re left, but all the hardwood trees will be most of it. There could be peak right, probably right about the time.”
“We usually get three or four thousand [visitors] a day. And the event is held, it’s right in downtown Warner, so it encompasses the village, the very downtown part of Warner,” he said “If you want to come enjoy a real community festival down to earth, small-ish, no admission charge, and very well-rounded in many different kinds of events that are happening,” Martin said.
Spellbound When: Begins Monday, Oct. 7, with opening reception Saturday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m. Where: Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201 (second floor), Manchester More: mosaicartcollective.com
Featured image: Music performance at a previous festival. Courtesy photo.
For a play that is set in the late 17th century and debuted on Broadway in 1953, The Crucible remains timely.
Bryan Halperin, director of an upcoming production opening Oct. 11 at Laconia’s Colonial Theatre, explained The Crucible‘s enduring quality in a recent phone interview.
“It’s a meaty drama about the seedier elements of human nature, a gripping, exciting, dramatic play about power, greed and lust,” he said. “It’s got elements of all the deadly sins.”
Because it deals with the Salem Witch Trials, Arthur Miller’s Tony-winning work is frequently staged in October, but The Crucible is far from a Halloween show. Rather, it’s about power, and how even a small taste can affect those who do not have it.
Throughout, Miller blends the historical record and dramatic license, beginning with the basic fact of four women accused of witchcraft after they’re caught dancing in the woods. In prisoner’s dilemma fashion, they turn against each other.
Tituba, a slave, claims to be a victim of a curse cast by two members of the group. She’s egged on by the men investigating, and the ringleader, Abigail Williams, goes along with her story, hoping to cover up that the event was born from her lover’s jealousy.
Approval from the town fathers changes the dynamic “They’re afraid of going to hell for sinning, they’re literally almost scared to death,” Halperin said. “Suddenly it gets turned around to, ‘All we’ve got to do is say what they want us to say, and we won’t get in any trouble; we’ll be praised for it.’ That’s a very powerful drug.”
Miller drew on a 20th-century “witch hunt” when he wrote The Crucible: the Senate hearings held to root out communism led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Some versions of the play are explicit about this element and include a narration comparing the Puritan era to post-WWII America.
Halperin sees the parallels. “Watching how society can quickly break down in a fit of hysteria when people learn to use the system for their own gain, at the expense of their friends and neighbors,” he observed, is “gripping for 1692, and it’s equally gripping for 2024 — as it was in 1954.”
The Crucible is Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative’s first stage play after a year and a half of doing musicals. Leading the cast are Kenny Aber as John Proctor, Laura Iwaskiewicz as his wife Elizabeth, and Amanda Wagner as Abigail, an orphan and former servant who was sent away after she had an affair with John.
Wagner is a St. Louis-born actress who moved to New Hampshire after 10 years working in Los Angeles. She said in a recent phone interview that portraying Abigail has been a goal of hers since reading The Crucible in 10th grade.“She’s a very complex person,” she said. “She’s a villain, but also a victim of her circumstances.”
She offered a take on the question answered earlier by Halperin. “This play feels so timely because groupthink and saying the truth in the face of what the majority is saying even if it’s going to get you killed is a terrifying thing,” she said. “It is strange to me that that’s a lesson that some people don’t want their teenagers taught.”
As a relative newcomer to the region, Wagner enjoys the atmosphere at Powerhouse and she is particularly grateful for its founders, Halperin and his wife, Johanna.
“Everyone is so supportive of one another,” she said. “Some of the actors have to go into some dark places, but Bryan does a good job of keeping things light. I always leave rehearsal with a smile on my face and feeling exhilarated, albeit tired. I want to give props to the company for doing some incredibly professional-level work.”
The Crucible When: Friday, Oct. 11, and Saturday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 13, 2 p.m. Where: Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia Tickets: $18 to $22 at etix.com
Featured image: Abigail Williams (Amanda Wagner) begs John Proctor (Kenny Aber) to give her a kind word. Courtesy photo.
Demystify oil painting, sculpting and more by venturing out on one of the many studio tours offered by art communities in New Hampshire this fall.
The Monadnock Art/Friends of the Dublin Art Colony Open Studio Tour is the perfect event at which to see artists in their natural habitat.
Sue Weller, president of the board of the Monadnock Art Tour, is impressed by “the amazing art that just flows through this event.”
“It’s really been a privilege to be working with so many wonderful people,” Weller said. “We have an amazing board. It’s all volunteer. Everybody works really hard to pull this event off,” she said.
Many artists moved to the Monadnock region during the mid-19th century. “I think they gravitated because of the presence of Mount Monadnock and its power and allure, and so we had watercolorists and oil painters and all kinds of artists come to the Dublin area,” Weller said. Abbott Handerson Thayer was an important figure that the artists wanted to learn from as well.
“In 1995 this group of folks, local artists in the Dublin area, got together, became Monadnock Art, Friends of the Dublin Art Colony, and they started to open their studios and create this beautiful tour so that the art appreciation of this area would continue,” Weller said.
This is their 28th year, with 65 studios and more than 80 artists for visitors to see.
Rose Lowry does marketing for the organization and explains the tour process: “It’s free,” Lowry said. “It’s a self-guided tour. So people either find us online and use the map that’s online. And then we have … 10,000 brochures. Practically dropped them from airplanes, you know, put them in stores and post offices just to get the word out.”
Jessie Pollock in her studio as part of the Monadnock Art Open Studio Tour. Photo by Lipofsky Photography.
“Rose does this amazing job of putting this map together…,” Weller said. “You could use GPS now or, you know, just sort of follow the written map and go and see the artists in their working studios, and talk to them and get a sense of what their inspiration is and how they communicate, how they work, how they do their art. It’s just really extraordinary.”
“We get people from all over the country, literally,” Lowry said.
Weller agreed: “Yeah, and it’s really neat because we basically cover these seven towns of Harrisville, Dublin, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon, Marlborough, Jaffrey.”
“There are these beautiful orange maple leaf signs that say Art Tour and the dates,” Weller said, “which are Oct. 12 through the 14th. And then each of the studios has a very unique black and white sign that has the studio number on it so … the drivers can easily follow those signs to the studio. So it’s really fun. You get to drive down roads you probably have never been at before and all of a sudden there’s this wonderful studio that is open to you.”
Another art tour takes place via the Center for the Arts. This year that tour is on Saturday, Oct. 12, and Sunday, Oct. 13.
“We love to offer open studios to our community,” said Dena Stahlheber, the Executive Director of the Center for the Arts. “Our particular organization, our nonprofit, serves the 12 towns surrounding and including New London. But we promote, support and connect our artists of all ages in the literary, performing and visual arts arenas to enrich our community through the arts.”
Stahlheber says she is “always surprised and amazed by the talent that lives here and loves to work here. So it’s really just a joy to be a part of it.” Besides New London, studios included in the tour will be in Andover, Sunapee, Danbury, Bradford and Springfield. Some artists will be sharing studios as well. “We have, at this year’s Open Studios … 14 different artists across the towns that we serve. And most of them are home studios. Some of them are coming to a shared location. But it’s a great way for our community to see the creative inspiration, the place in which our artists are getting inspired, making their art.”
Why would people be interested in checking out one of the studios?
“You get to ask questions, to ask about their approach, look at the different types of things they’re doing, see the creative spaces,” Stahlheber said. “Some of the home studios are stunning. Some of these have been built up over the years and are just amazing. And I think it’s really fun if you enjoy arts and creativity to see the different ways artists and people, you know, approach it.”
Depending on how much of a scenic fall road trip is in the cards, participants can cover a lot of ground. “It’s free to the public, which is wonderful. And, you know, depending on where you live, some of the artists may be closer, and some may be a little bit farther, but people can pick and choose where they want to go and when between the hours that are noted, depending on the time period.”
Deerfield Arts also puts on a tour of various studios in Deerfield. On their website they mention how every year “the artists and craftspeople of Deerfield, New Hampshire, offer the Deerfield Arts Tour — a self-guided open house tour of our studios and work.” In total there are 13 different locations and 21 different artists that participants could expect to visit if they decided to see every spot on the map.
The Deerfield Arts Tour has taken place every year since 2003 and is made up of artists who live or work in Deerfield, many having been recognized throughout the state for the high caliber of their work, according to the same website. Participants in the tour represent a mix of contemporary and traditional styles and a variety of media.
In November, the Route 3 Art Trail Tour, an effort by Twiggs Gallery and others, will run Saturday, Nov. 2, at 17 locations in Concord, Pembroke, Boscawen and Franklin, according to the event’s Facebook page. See route3arttrail.com for the map to this event.
All these art tours will include various styles. Among others, you can see potters, sculptors, photographers, textile artists, painters using different media, glass artists, wood turners and furniture makers.
Rose Lowry summation of the Monadnock Art Open Studio tour applies to them all.
“It’s absolutely beautiful and you go to the cute little towns,” Lowry said. “It’s a great journey.”
Hit the road with these tours
Center for the Arts Open Studios When: Saturday, Oct. 12, and Sunday, Oct. 13 Towns: New London, Andover, Sunapee, Danbury, Bradford, and Springfield More info: centerfortheartsnh.org
The Monadnock Art Open StudioTour/Friends of the Dublin Art Colony When: Saturday, Oct. 12, through Monday, Oct. 14 Towns: Harrisville, Dublin, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon, Marlborough, Jaffrey More info: monadnockart.org
New Hampshire Wool Arts 41st Annual Tour When: Saturday, Oct. 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 13, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Towns: Antrim, Bennington, Deering, Greenfield, Lyndeborough (each location is a farm and also features other artists and craftspeople) More info: woolartstournh.com
Deerfield Arts Tour When: Saturday, Oct. 19, and Sunday, Oct. 20 More info: deerfieldarts.com
Route 3 Art Trail Tour When: Saturday, Nov. 2, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Towns: Concord, Pembroke, Boscawen, Franklin More info: route3arttrail.com
The New Hampshire Heritage Museum Trail Passport Program allows visitors to experience 21 different museums. Each passport is valued at $150 but they are available for purchase at participating museums for only $30, according to the program’s website.
Specifically, the Trail Passport provides buyers with one admission ticket to each of those 21 museums that are part of the museum trail. The Passport is good for one person for one year from the date of purchase, and it’s non-transferable. The Passport includes brief summaries of the museums organized by location and category and can be stamped upon entry.
According to the website, each member museum is recognized as a significant cultural institution that preserves and promotes an understanding and appreciation of a shared national and state heritage.
The 21 museums combined present 300 years of history by hosting more than 100,000 historical artifacts, which are viewed by over 200,000 patrons every year, according to the same website.
NH Heritage Museum Trail
Passport cost: $30 More info: nhmuseumtrail.org/passport
Participating museums: Albacore Park (Portsmouth, ussalbacore.org) American Independence Museum (Exeter, independencemuseum.org) Aviation Museum of NH (Londonderry, aviationmuseumofnh.org) Canterbury Shaker Village (Canterbury, shakers.org) Castle in the Clouds (Moultonborough, castleintheclouds.org) Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, currier.org) Lake Winnipesaukee Museum (Laconia, lwhs.us) Lee Scouting Museum (Manchester, scoutingmuseum.nhscouting.org) Libby Museum of Natural History (Wolfeboro, libbymuseum.org) Millyard Museum (Manchester, manchesterhistoric.org) Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden (Portsmouth, moffattladd.org) Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum (Warner, indianmuseum.org) Museum of the White Mountains (Plymouth State University in Plymouth, plymouth.edu/mwm) NH Boat Museum (Wolfeboro, nhbm.org) NH Historical Society (Concord, nhhistory.org) New England Racing Museum (Loudon, nemsmuseum.com) Portsmouth Historical Society (Portsmouth, portsmouthhistory.org) Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm (Tamworth, remickmuseum.org) Strawbery Banke Museum (Portsmouth, strawberybanke.org) Woodman Museum (Dover, woodmanmuseum.org) Wright Museum of World War II (Wolfeboro, wrightmuseum.org)
History with UFOs and Ninja Turtles
Driving through time with roadside historical markers
Francestown used to be famous for its soapstone. There used to be a double-decker bridge over the river in Suncook. Horace Greeley, the owner and founder of the New York Tribune, presidential candidate, and one of the fathers of westward expansion, was born in Milford in 1811. Colonel John Goffe didn’t actually live in Goffstown. You could spend a day or so in a research library learning these things; alternatively, you could read about them on roadside historical markers.
Historical Marker 0148, overlooking the baseball diamond in White Park in Concord. Photo courtesy of the Historical Highway Markers App.
According to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (dot.nh.gov) there are more than 16,000 miles of roads and highways in New Hampshire. It’s very difficult to drive for any distance in the state without seeing a green historical marker on the side of the road as you drive by. The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources (nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov), the agency responsible for the markers, says there are more than 200 of them, spread across the state.
Michael Bruno is an expert in New Hampshire’s roadside historical markers. He is the author of Cruising New Hampshire History: A Guide to New Hampshire’s Roadside Historical Markers. He said that documenting the state’s markers involved traveling to every part of New Hampshire.
“I started [visiting the markers] in late 2015,” Bruno remembered, “and published in May of 2018. … I visited every marker at that time. There were 255. I visited every marker, photographed it, GPS tagged it, and then did a back story, learning a little bit more than the 12 to 14 lines of text that you had on the marker.”
The State of New Hampshire has been placing historical markers since the 1950s.
“It’s pretty amazing that the legislation happened in 1955,” Bruno said, “and by 1958 four markers were in place in the state.” One of the first three markers marked Horace Greeley’s birthplace near Milford. “That marker has like 35 words on the whole marker,” Bruno said. “It’s amazing that the story of a guy who founded the New York Tribune is on a marker with 35 words.”
Bruno hears from a lot of people who use his guide to take road trips from marker to marker, across the state. He thinks the Covid epidemic was a turning point in public interest in the markers.
“[During lockdown] people needed something to do,” he said. “I remember this one couple from somewhere in Sullivan County.” They emailed Bruno. “They were like, ‘We’re supposed to go to Florida, we can’t go.’ So they had a Mazda Miata and they would pack a picnic every day and go visit markers. Every day was a journey. The lady wrote to me and said, ‘I learned so much about our state. I didn’t realize I had so much history in my own community and region.’ So it was kind of eye-opening.”
New Hampshire’s historical markers are not limited to the birthplaces of Revolutionary War figures, or obscure architecture. Animator, film maker and historical marker enthusiast Griffin Hansen (youtube.com/user/Gruppetstudios) was the force behind placing a historical marker near a manhole cover in Dover to commemorate the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who first appeared in a comic book written there. (Dover, not the manhole.) Hansen and his co-director Anna Chavez worked together to get approval from the State for the marker. He explained that getting permission from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources (nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov) is a three-part process. “One, get 25 signatures from people in New Hampshire, Two, write up the text that you want for the marker. And this is a new one, but the third one is to get the town’s approval as well. The town’s permission is a new thing. We didn’t get that permission because our marker was installed last year but it actually got approved a long time before that.”
Hansen speculated that the reason for the addition of the town approval part of the process is rooted in last year’s Elizabeth Gurley Flynn controversy. In May 2023, the Concord-located marker for Flynn was removed shortly after being installed after receiving opposition from some on the New Hampshire Executive Council. According to a press release at the time from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources Flynn, who was born in Concord in 1890, was “a well-known labor, women’s rights and civil liberties activist.” Identifying Flynn as “The Rebel Girl,” the marker highlighted Flynn’s involvement in the labor movement and her imprisonment after joining the Communist Party, according to Hippo coverage from last year. According to Wikipedia, Flynn died in the Soviet Union in 1964 and received a state funeral in Red Square before her body was sent to Chicago for burial.
Hansen said that in his experience the marker approval process takes about a year.
“I run an organization that I founded, which installs historical markers across the country,” he said, “and we actually use the same historical marker manufacturer as the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, so that is actually very timely for them to only take a year.”
Hansen’s personal favorite marker is in Lincoln.
“The greatest marker in the state of New Hampshire — ask anybody — is going to be the Betty and Barney Hill marker,” he said. The Hills reported being abducted by extraterrestrials near Lincoln in 1961. “I have had a lot of people tell me that they’re very thankful that Anna and I put up a historical marker for the Ninja Turtles and they think it’s really cool, they think it adds to the culture, and I’m very flattered, but I do not have any illusions about the fact that it will never be as cool as the UFO historical marker, which I am proud to cede the throne to.”
Guide to markers Cruising New Hampshire History: A Guide to New Hampshire’s Roadside Historical Markers by Michael Bruno (Lloyds Hill Publishing, 2018) can be found in many New Hampshire libraries or purchased online.
10 Historical Road Markers
Marker 0110, Concord, Ratification of the Federal Constitution, on the corner of Church and Bouton streets. There was suspense and drama surrounding New Hampshire’s decision to ratify the Constitution. The state’s approval ultimately provided the two-thirds majority needed to adopt it. This is one of Michael Bruno’s favorite markers.
Marker 0184, Bow, Turkey Pond – 1938 Hurricane, Route 13, approximately 0.7 miles from the Bow Town Line. In 1938 New England was struck by a Category 3 Hurricane that decimated towns and forests across the region. Some forests have not yet completely recovered.
Marker 0208, Manchester, St. Mary’s Bank Credit Union/La Caisse Populair Sainte-Marie, 418-420 Notre Dame Ave., Manchester, in front of the America’s Credit Union Museum (acumuseum.org). Appealing to enthusiasts of credit unions and Franco-American history, this marker has two sides, one in English and one in French.
Marker 0126, Derry, Robert Frost, Route 28, 1.7 miles south of the Derry Rotary. Legendary poet Robert Frost lived and farmed in Derry between 1900 and 1911.
Marker 0166, Londonderry, Londonderry Town Pound, Route 128 (Mammoth Road) and Old Stage Road. “Stray farm animals were confined here by elected ‘pounders,’ or reeves, until ransomed by their owners.”
Marker 0072, Salem, Mystery Hill, Route 28, south of Route 111. This marker describes America’s Stonehenge.
Marker 0221, Salem, Armenian Settlement, Cross Street at the intersection of Brady Road, near the Armenian Church. One of the often forgotten stories of New Hampshire’s immigrant past is that of Armenians who settled here after fleeing persecution in Europe.
Marker 0271, Brookline, Fresh Pond Ice Co., Route 13. Before electric refrigeration, Northern New England supplied ice to sweaty people around the world. At its peak the Fresh Pond Ice Co. employed 250 people and harvested 100,000 tons of ice each year.
Marker 0132, Hooksett, New Hampshire Canal System, Merrimack Street and Lambert Town Park. In their day, before the coming of the railroads, canals were a state-of-the-art method of transporting cargo. This marker describes some of New Hampshire’s canals and the artifacts of them that can still be seen.
Marker 0143, Weare, East Weare Village, Route 77 and South Sugar Hill Road. East Weare used to be a town. Now it’s under water. According to its marker, it “was sacrificed for the Everett Flood Control Project” in 1960.
10 visits gets you a sticker! The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources website (nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov) has a link to a free computer/smartphone app to locate any NHDHR-approved historical marker. It can be used on a desktop computer or bookmarked for use on a phone.
Dashing through merlot
Jingle Bells Winery tour is becoming a holiday tradition
If you’re looking for a low-stress, fun way to explore New Hampshire this fall, Beth Waite thinks wine might be the answer. Waite is the General Manager of Averill House Vineyard in Brookline and one of the creators of the Jingle Bells Winery Tour.
Wine and snacks. Courtesy photo.
“The tour is a really great adventure,” she said, “for our guests to tour New Hampshire and visit 15 participating [wineries] throughout New Hampshire and be able to sample four different wines from each catalog. This is actually a seven-week self-guided tour.”
Waite said the tour was designed to allow small groups to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company.
“This is meant for friends and families and wine lovers. A great opportunity to get out and, you know, enjoy the holiday season with each other,” she said.
Each winery will provide each Tour guest with a flight of four of its wines, a snack and a holiday ornament. Waite said the snack is important as a palate-cleanser between wines but also provides an insight into how different wines pair with food.
“There are some really fun options that some of the wineries do,” she said. “I know our customers’ favorite is over at Flag Hill Winery — they’ll do a meatball, or there might be more of a sweet option, like chocolate. So the snacks vary, depending on the location.”
Different wineries will showcase their wines in different ways.
“Here at Averill House Vineyard, we do a kind of an ala carte [tasting],” Waite said.”So the customer gets to choose which option they want to taste. And our menu can range about 30 different styles of wines, going from your whites to your reds to your sweets. And one of my favorite things that we do is we serve it with a cookie.”
As the Jingle Bells Tour becomes an established end-of-year event, Waite said, more and more people have been writing it into their calendars.
“The biggest thing is that families that are starting with us and they’re starting new traditions,” she said. “That’s been something I’ve been noticing over the previous years, that we’re getting repeat customers from all over, whether that’s Maine or Connecticut, Rhode Island, and especially us here in New Hampshire. And the event grows each year, you know, so this year we’re hoping to see about 700 participants coming through.”
Jingle Bells Winery Tour
When: Saturday, Nov. 16, through Sunday, Dec. 29. Wineries will be open for the Tour Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Some wineries will have additional hours.
Tickets: A single ticket costs $65; a couples ticket is $125. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com; find a link on the event’s Facebook page. Guests will be able to sample a tasting flight of four wines from each of the participating locations. They will also get a snack and an ornament.
Candice DeAngelis, a Spanish teacher at Bedford High School, was named New Hampshire’s 2025 Teacher of the Year, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Education. DeAngelis, who was picked from a pool of 331 nominees, has taught for 18 years and has worked as a Spanish teacher in Bedford since 2016; before that she worked at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston and in a temporary position at Londonderry High School, the release said.
The release quoted Superintendent Mike Fournier of the Bedford School District as saying that “Her dedication to creating a positive and nurturing environment makes her a true asset to our school district. She is not only a treasure to our community, but also an inspiration to every student she teaches.”
Fire prevention
New Hampshire’s State Fire Marshal Office urges residents to check their smoke alarms as part of the National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Prevention Week, which runs through Saturday, Oct. 12, according to a press release. The NFPA reports that smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a house fire by 54 percent and that nationally 60 percent of fire deaths happen in home with “either no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms,” the release said. In New Hampshire, 63 percent of fatal home fires have “no working smoke alarms or inadequate coverage” the release said. Smoke alarm safety tips include installing smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on each level of a home; testing smoke alarms at least once a month (using the test button) and replacing all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old, the release said. See fpw.org for more.
EEE news
A fifth New Hampshire resident tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis and later died, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services reported, according to an Oct. 4 story at WMUR.com. The person is described as an adult from Danville, the story said. All five of the residents who tested positive for EEE got sick in August, the story reported. Find more information on EEE and other mosquito-borne illnesses at dhhs.nh.gov — under “Programs and Services” choose “Disease Prevention” and then “Infection Diseases,” where information on EEE includes a regularly updated Arboviral Risk map of the state.
Charge up
Foxfire Property Management’s Storrs Street parking lot in downtown Concord received a new EV charging station, installed in August, according to a press release from Revvit, the Somerville, Mass.-based climate tech startup. The EV station is part of an initiative that “aims to make EV charging more accessible and efficient by deploying Revvit’s Level 1 charger, purpose-built for long-dwell parking environments such as workplaces, airports, hotels, and more,” the release said. According to the release, “Revvit’s chargers … require no apps or QR codes — drivers can begin charging within seconds by entering a manual code, similar to a garage door opener.” See revvit.net.
Tech help
The United Way of Greater Nashua has launched Tech Help United, “a new initiative aimed at improving digital literacy across our community,” according to a press release. The program is “designed to help individuals who struggle with technology gain essential digital skills, enabling them to access vital services,” the release said.
The program is looking for community partners and volunteers including digital navigators, to work with individuals who need tech help (no advanced tech knowledge is needed; full training will be provided) and community locations (local agencies, community centers and faith communities who can provide space for digital help to be offered), the release said. Those interested in volunteering or providing a host location are asked to contact Sara Ceaser at [email protected] or 882-4011.
Top value
University of New Hampshire was ranked No. 7 “Best Value” public university in the country (No. 56 best value among all universities) in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report, according to a UNH Today report. This is the second consecutive year UNH ranked No. 7 and the fourth consecutive year it ranked “the No. 1 best value public university in New England,” the report said. See unh.edu/unhtoday.
Historic preservation
The Concord Preservation Advocates are hosting an informal gathering on Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Feathered Friend Brewing, 231 S. Main St. in Concord, to “celebrate local historic preservation successes, connect with others, and share ideas for future networking events,” according to an email. Concord Preservation Advocates’ Facebook page describes them as a “network of people who value the historic character of Concord” and says they “aim to make historic preservation a priority and use it to bring history to life.” The event is free (cash bar) with light refreshments and soft drinks and brief presentations on nearby historic landmarks at 5:45 p.m. — “Bring your ideas and a jacket. Plan to be in an outdoor space if the weather cooperates,” the email said. RSVP to tinyurl.com/POSOct15 by Sunday, Oct. 13.
Author and photographer Jon Waterman will present his book Into the Thaw: Witnessing the Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Monday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 p.m. At this free event, New Hampshire author Richard Adams Carey, a professor emeritus of SNHU, will be in conversation with Waterman. See gibsonsbookstore.com.
Herbalist, teacher and director at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community Betsy Golon will speak to the Manchester Garden Club on Thursday, Oct. 17, at noon at St. Hedwig Church Hall in Manchester. Guests are welcome. See manchesternhgardenclub.weebly.com.
Actor Alan Ruck, known for his roles in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Succession among others, will be the featured speaker at the New Hampshire Film Festival in Portsmouth and will appear for a conversation followed by audience Q&A at the Music Hall on Friday, Oct. 18, at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $45. See themusichall.org.
Meet a Harris’ hawk and see it on the wing while experts from Monadnock Falconry answer questions at the bandshell in Nashua’s Greeley Park on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., hosted by Nashua Public Library. See nashualibrary.libcal.com.
