YouTube Recording: The History of the Kancamagus Highway

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The History of the Kancamagus Highway

With historian and author Glenn Knoblock

This program is made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities "Humanities to Go" program.

Considered to be one of the most scenic roads in America, the Kancamagus Highway draws thousands of tourists to New Hampshire annually. The highway, which runs between Conway and Lincoln and through the towns of Albany and Waterville Valley, was fully opened in 1967, but the development of the highway itself took over 120 years to become a reality.  Located in the Swift River Valley for much of its length, the Kancamagus is the gateway to the southern White Mountains and is not only renowned for its fall foliage views, but such celebrated natural sites as Sabbaday Falls, Lower Falls, and Rocky Gorge, to name just a few.

Glenn A. Knoblock is an independent scholar and author of over twenty books. Knoblock has served as the main military contributor to Harvard and Oxford University's landmark African American National Biography, and he has also written for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. His work documents a wide variety of subjects in New Hampshire and New England history, including African American history, historic cemeteries and grave markers, as well as covered bridges, the Kancamagus Highway, and New Hampshire's loon population. He holds a BA in History from Bowling Green State University.