Erin Donovan 96 pages softcover
Built by James Everell Henry, the East
Branch & Lincoln Railroad (EB&L) is considered to be the
grandest and largest logging railroad operation ever built in New
England. In 1892, the mountain town of Lincoln, New Hampshire, was
transformed from a struggling wilderness enclave to a thriving mill town
when Henry moved his logging operation from Zealand. He built houses, a
company store, sawmills, and a railroad into the East Branch of the
Pemigewasset River watershed to harvest virgin spruce. Despite the
departure of the last EB&L log train from Lincoln Woods by 1948, the
industry's cut-and-run practices forever changed the future of land
conservation in the region, prompting legislation like the Weeks Act of
1911 and the Wilderness Act of 1964. Today, nearly every trail in the
Pemigewasset Wilderness follows or utilizes portions of the old EB&L
Railroad bed.
