WILLEY HOUSE LANDSLIDE, CRAWFORD NOTCH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND ITS CULTURAL IMPACT

The Willey House Landslide may be the first debris flow to have been reported from New England in the geological literature, and is possibly the most influential.

The Willey family lived in Crawford Notch and ran an inn for travelers there. On August 28, 1826 a severe storm dumped rain on the White Mountains, causing numerous debris slides on steep slopes and a substantial flood on the Saco River. During the night of August 28 a debris avalanche flowed down from what is now called Mount Willey on the steep west side of the notch. The Willeys had run from their house to a previously chosen place of presumed safety behind some large boulders. The landslide split around the house leaving it standing, and buried the family, including 3 children, and 2 hired men. Two other children were never found. Contemporary letters from Rev. Carlos Wilcox to Benjamin Silliman at Yale described the aftermath of the storm and documented the slides and flood effects. A summary of the letters published in the American Journal of Science in January 1829 describes several other landslides as well, but the human costs have given the Willey slide an unusual notoriety.

The symbolism of the family being buried and the house surviving became the subject of great interest and many interpretations, and tourists began to come from great distances to view the site. It has been suggested that the Willey slide was the beginning of the still-continuing tourist industry in the White Mountains (Eric Purchase, 1999, Out of Nowhere). This historic event provoked a Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice Told Tale titled the Ambitious Guest and a Thomas Cole Painting as writers and artists visited the White Mountains. The Willey House no longer exists, but today one can visit the site in Crawford Notch State Park and find natural levees from the avalanche in the forest above the site.