Mount Chocorua

The Legend of Mount Chocorua:
Mount Chocorua bears the name of Chief Chocorua, a Native American who lived with his young son in the area that is now Tamworth, New Hampshire, in the early 1700s, although no authentic records of his life exist.

Some accounts say that Chocorua stayed behind in Tamworth after most of his fellow Pequawkets had moved north to Canada to avoid conflict with the white man following the 1725 Battle of Lovewell’s Pond in nearby Fryeburg, Maine.

The most common story is that Chocorua was particularly friendly with a settler named Cornelius Campbell and his family. One day Chocorua was called away for tribal business and asked if the Campbells could watch his young son Tuamba while he was gone. While Chocorua was gone, the boy found and drank a bottle of poison that Cornelius Campbell had made to eliminate troublesome foxes, and Chocorua returned to find his son had died. Chief Chocorua, distraught with grief, pledged revenge on the family. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Campbell returned home one afternoon to find his wife Caroline and children had been slain.

Campbell suspected Chocorua and pursued him up the mountain that today bears his name. Chocorua climbed atop the highest boulder on the summit and, knowing that death was at hand, raised his arms to the sky and is said to have shouted:

“A curse upon ye, white men! May the Great Spirit curse ye when he speaks in the clouds, and his words are fire! Chocorua had a son—and ye killed him while the sky looked bright! Lightning blast your crops! Wind and fire destroy your dwellings! The Evil Spirit breathe death upon your cattle! Your graves lie in the war-path of the Indian! Panthers howl, and wolves fatten over your bones! Chocorua goes to the Great Spirit—his curse stays with the white men!”

Chocorua then leapt off the mountain and fell to his death on the rocks below.

From: http:--www.chocorualakeconservancy.org-mt-chocorua-chief-chocorua-7-
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