the movement of people and painted scenes of wildness and beauty. The view seen by the artists also benefited from the people who lived among the mountains. Farmers opened the valley floors and low hill- sides, set their sheep out to graze, and harvested hay for their cattle. Loggers opened the views and attracted new tourists as they moved into more remote regions and sought profitable tracts to cut. Hotel operators bought and protected acres of land near their hotels, preserv- ing the illusion of wilderness for their clientele.
The popularity of the White Mountains contributed to the changes farmers, traders, and loggers made. Even as farmers began leaving the high, rocky valleys to move to more open farmland out west, hotel own- ers bought the old farms and increased their White Mountain business by consolidating their holdings and adding trails for hikers and car- riages. In 1851, the first railroad line traveled along the valleys between Portland, Maine, and Gorham, New Hampshire, and more railroad lines followed. Bridges crossed valley streams and traversed rivers.
By the mid-1850s, there was a wide diversity of tourists: travelers from Boston and New York arrived on the trains into the mountains, but even laborers came on short trips. Thomas Starr King published The White Hills: Their Legends, Poetry and Landscape in 1865. A clear attempt to lure Americans to the mountains, it was an immediate best seller. In his book, King proclaims:
Every triumph of a human artist is only an illusion, producing a semblance of a real charm of air or foliage, of sunset cloud,
Above Mount Jefferson, on route from Gorham to the Glen House, undated Alvan Fisher Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches Private collection
Below Saco River at Sunset, undated Benjamin Champney Oil on canvas, 10 x 14 inches Private collection
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