              |
Four Soldiers Path and Underhill
Path: Naming RMC's New Trails Over the past year, the RMC has received nearly two dozen nominations for possible trail names, for the two new routes to the Pond of Safety. The Board of Directors would like to thank everyone who contributed. There were many wonderful and deserving recommendations but, of course, only two could be selected! At its October meeting, the Board voted to name the new trails Four Soldiers Path, in honor of the four Revolutionary soldiers for whom the Pond of Safety is named, and Underhill Path, in honor of Miriam Underhill. Bill and Barbara Arnold nominated “Four Soldiers.” Tami Hartley and Regina Ferreria nominated “Underhill Path”. (Dan Brodien nominated a similar suggestion, “Miriam’s Way”).
On the mossy shore of this little tarn through the last years of the American Revolution lived, unknown and undiscovered, four soldiers of the Continental Army, Benjamin Hicks, James Ryder, William Danforth and Lazarus Holmes. The cause of their long retreat from the world was as curious as it was honorable to the four patriots. Early in the war they were captured by the British but quickly paroled and sent back to their regiment. Their superiors believing their parole papers to be fraudulent, ordered them back into the ranks. The four men refused to take up arms again in violation of their word of honor to the British. Learning that they were about to be arrested as deserters, they fled to the wilderness in the north to find in unknown Durand among the mountains, a little pond that for more than three years was to be their safety. Here, undiscovered and perhaps forgotten, these involuntary hermits lived as best they could on what rod and gun provided. At the close of the war they emerged from their hiding to join the early settlement in Dartmouth, now Jefferson, of which they became valued and respected citizens. To this day, descendents of the four soldiers still call Jefferson their home. The steeper and more rugged Underhill Path honors one of the great climbers of the last century, Miriam Underhill. Together with her husband Robert, she pioneered previously unclimbed routes in the Alps and elsewhere, while Miriam organized the first "manless" (all-female) climbing parties on major expeditions. By the late 1930's when World War II precluded overseas travel, the Underhills turned to the White Mountains. They became summer visitors to Randolph and later permanent residents. They were early members of the Appalachian Mountain Club's 4,000-footer club, and Miriam was the first person to climb all 48 of these peaks in winter. Later, she completed all of New England's 4,000-footers, as well as the region's 100 highest. She became an active member and officer of the Randolph Mountain Club. With her husband, she laid out and cut the western section of the Link between the Castle and Caps Ridge Trails on Mt. Jefferson. She also was an author, writing articles for the A.M.C.'s journal, Appalachia, and working with her son, Robert, Jr. on the A.M.C.'s Mountain Flowers of New England. Her autobiography, Give Me the Hills is a mountaineering classic. Many older members of the RMC remember climbing locally with Miriam in her later years, always with her ice axe. She died in 1976 at age 77. In keeping with RMC tradition,
the Board of Directors voted to use the nomenclature of “path”
rather than “trail.”
|
The
tale of the four soldiers is recounted in a number of North Country
histories. George N. Cross’ fine history of Randolph, Randolph
Old and New, published in 1924, has one of the best accounts
of the story. In it, Cross writes,