Watman's World

This last weekend I notice a news bulletin that gave me some new information about our wonderful state. It isn’t the most important item that’s come across my desk in the last few months. None-the-less, it was interesting. That prompted me to search my files for other intriguing facts that I’ve stored for future use.
The Mount Washington Observatory holds the world record for the greatest wind speed ever recorded on Earth. The facility on the 6,288 foot summit had only housed observers for two winters when the storm hit.
Three staff members and nine cats were present to feel the thrust of winds that eventually hit their highpoint at 1:21 P.M. on April 12, 1934. The wind gust measured a record of 231 miles per hour.
Many of you probably know that Contoocook River stretches seventy-one miles from Poole Pond and Contoocook Lake on the Jaffrey/Rindge border until it joins the Merrimack River at Penacook Island. Those that tour the waterway are likely to see any number of the one hundred and seventeen species of birds that visit the area.
The river’s most unique features is not as easily spotted. It is one of the few that flows first south and then in a North/North Easterly direction.
Officials at the University of New Hampshire caught one of the great imposters of all time. He was an associate professor of physics at the University of New Hampshire. In a seven year period, he held five different teaching positions. UNH was the third college teaching position that Marvin Hewitt held during that period.
University officials finally discover that Hewitt was a high school dropout and had no qualifications at all to teach physics. This happened in 1954 and resulted in the loss of his position. Because his colleagues described him as a “brilliant physicist” he escaped criminal prosecution.
We were pleased to find a website (New Hampshire UFO) that archives reports of strange sighting that have defied explanation. On March 29, 1966 there was a report from Henniker that an “L” shaped box was seen sitting on the ground, on four legs.
A Bradford witness reported seeing a triangle shaped craft with multi-colored lights on March 3, 1992. A Weare resident awoke in the middle of the night, on March 16, 1966, and saw a UFO in the shape of a dinner plate. A witness in Contoocook sighted three lights in the sky bigger than the stars, on January 15, 1999.
We are pleased to learn that the area has the potential for attracting tourists from other parts of the universe. It will be good for the economy.
Since the “Old Man of the Mountains” dropped out of sight, we have been searching for a noteworthy replacement. North Woodstock has a great hidden Halloween treasures. Its mummies.
These particular versions are a series of outcroppings along side a bridge on Route 3. The brook waters have carved rocks into a series of mounds that look eerily like bodies wrapped in cloth. Unfortunately, it is fairly difficult to get to the site which currently is on public land, but behind a RV park.
The folks in Pittsfield, NH once held a world record. This could simply be due to the fact that people in other places didn’t love Groucho as much. Our neighbors over in Pittsfield liked Groucho Marx so much that back in July, 2001 five-hundred and twenty-five residents got together and wore Groucho’s big, unique black glasses and large black eyebrows.
Unfortunately, Springfield, Missouri set a new record in 2007. It stands at 4,077 people willing to look foolish at the same time. The latest population figures we could find for Pittsfield shows 4,402 residents in 2007. That gives them only a small margin of error should they seek to win their crown back.
The newest item of interesting but less important information that came to our attention had its source at the “Nashua Telegraph”. The folks down there were curious to find out just how many red, orange and yellow leaves fall from our trees during leaf-peeping season.
The newspaper folks checked with the U.S. Forest Service and concluded that about one-sixth of New Hampshire’s forest population is sugar maples, beech and yellow birch trees. That’s a grand total of 666 million of the most colorful trees. No, I didn’t conduct my own count. I still have faith in the Forest Service.
They estimated that an average tree has 800 leaves. Based on these figures, they concluded that these trees account for 1.9 million tons of leaves or 608 billion leaves! My only question now, is who is responsible for raking all these leaves up!