NH Secrets Legends and Lore

Welcome to the NEW HAMPSHIRE SECRETS, LEGENDS AND LORE PODCAST where twice a month we explore the world of New Hampshire that lies outside of the hard news. I’m your host, Wayne King, and I invite you to join us for an adventure that will take us on a journey together to explore those things that are unlikely to make the pages of your newspaper, the waves of your radio station or the bits and bytes of your favorite news website. Yet for many of us these stories will reveal what makes life here in the Granite State truly worth living. Together we’ll uncover some secrets, speculate on a few rumors and legends and we’ll meet the people, and a critter or two, both living and long departed who weave together the colorful tapestry of New Hampshire’s past as well as some who are helping to build our future. We’ll explore places known and unknown that you will want to add to your bucket list; We’ll laugh together, gasp together and maybe even shed a tear or two. I invite you to suggest stories that you think others will enjoy. About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel “Sacred Trust” a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge and proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

There is something sacred about a fishing/hunting camp: off the grid, on leased land, deep in the woods. The last quarter mile of what is almost always a hike into the camp is a near-religious experience in any season. The anticipation as one nears the camp can make the heart flutter for the average camp owner.

For John Harrigan, legendary newsman and editor, New Hampshire’s premier outdoor columnist and Northcountry icon, the story behind his camp is woven so thoroughly into his life that it is almost impossible to separate. Like a beautiful strand of Bittersweet whose tendrils, flowers and seeds weave through the joys and sorrows of his life.

But time waits for no man or woman. Inevitably, the time comes when the trek into camp challenges the years and reluctantly the man or woman must yield to the exigencies of the moment.

John is sanguine about this, yet he also recognizes the momentous import of this transition within the context of both his own history and that of the camp itself.

In this podcast John recalls the serendipity of securing the land, tearing down the old camp – injudiciously placed in a swampy area too close to the water and falling down after years of deferred maintenance. Then the joyous – and bittersweet – process of planning and executing the building of a new camp.

It seems almost poetic that John has opted to pass the camp along to another renowned Journalist, Gary Ghioto, who wrote for The Courier, Foster’s Daily Democrat, The Boston Globe, and NH Public Radio among others and at NHPR played a central role in the reporting of the Colebrook shootings that had played such a central role in John’s life.