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Blueberrying...
Many of our viewers will remember when blueberries were grown commercially on the Watson Farm on Cherry Valley Road. Blueberries were also grown on the Curtis Farm on Curtis Road for shipment to Boston. Shown here are local boys harvesting berries at the Watson Farm. It would appear that the harvest was well worth the effort. Blueberries are still grown on a small scale on Cherry Valley Road and today a hike up Piper and Gunstock Mountains will reward you with sweet/tart wild blueberries and magnficent views - also well worth the effort.
The 1838 Benjamin Rowe Farmhouse located in Gilford Village has recently been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This exciting and long awaited event became a reality when the National Park Service, a part of the Department of the Interior, awarded the distinction to the Gilford Historic and Heritage Commision and the Town of Gilford on April 30, 2008. 
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. it is part of a national program designed to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect historical and archaeological resources.
The Benjamin Rowe House was accepted for listing on the National Register because of its architectural significance as a Greek Revival cape, and as a rare example of this type of structure executed in brick.
The house is owned by the town of Gilford and is leased by the Thompson-Ames Historical Society. The furnishings of the house came primarily from the Tilton farmstead, another of Gilford's early capes of about the same period. The house is open several times a year, hosts many field trips and may be viewed by appaointment at any time by calling the Historical Society at 527-9009 or speaking to any historical society member.
A dedication celebration will be held be hosted by the Gilford District Historoic and Heritage Commission, The Town of Gilford and the Thompson-Ames Historical Society
at a date to be announced.
On February 23, 1989 the largest North American Elm in New Hampshire was lost to the ravages of time, disease and the axe. A story in the Laconia Citizen dated February 24, 1989, reports that the tree which stood on the Gilford property of Parkman and Helen Howe on Gunstock Hill Road was 75 to 80 feet tall, 30 feet around at the base and 18 to 19 feet around at chest level.
After years of tending the giant tree finally died of old age. "What took more than 200 yearsto create passed into history in a little over 5 hours when tree specialist Don Dockham felled the American Elm." At that time Dockham said that of the more than 1000 elms that had once graced the Laconia area most had fallen prey to Dutch Elm disease.
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For most of us, the summer season conjurs up memories of good times past and the anticipation of good times to come. We look forward to all of the fun activities Gilford has to offer: hiking, boating, fishing, blueberring and the many other opportunities we are priviledged to enjoy. But in earlier times, it wasn't all fun. In A New Hampshire Boyhood, hand in hand with the joys of living in Gilford, Alvah Hunter tells of the time spent preparing for the long winter to come. In the Gunstock Parish: a History of Gilford, we are told that a woodpile of this size went up this chimney each year to keep the Sanborn family warm and fed on their farm just south of the Village.
And for a good part of each summer, men and boys concentrated on growing, cutting and storing hay, not the favorite activity of the summer, but necessary to keep the stock fed during the coming winter. It is speculated that the haystack shown here, also on the Sanborn Farm on Belknap Mountain Road, may have been larger than the house. The summer before he turned eleven, Alvah Hunter's father gave him a brand new scythe and snath and that summer he and his brother help their father and grandfather cut hay. Ther shook it out and turned it over, all the while keeping an eye out for thunderheads. When ready, father pitched it on to the rack while Alvah tread it down. If it was going to be stored in the barn, father pitched and the boys stowed it away. Probably noone participating would have considered haying or harvesting wood fun, but summer was not all work. The Hunter boys did look forward to their favorite summer pasttime - fishing the local brooks and lakes.
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