Ghosts of Mount Washington include adventurers, day trippers

OSSIPEE — All Lizzie Bourne wanted to do was watch the sunrise over Mount Washington. Instead she died in the cold, and her spirit is said to haunt the summit.

Decades later, a Tamworth man died a hero on the mountain while trying to rescue two climbers.

These and other stories were presented in a talk, "Ghosts of Mount Washington," at Ossipee Public Library last Thursday afternoon by Marianne O'Connor, author of "Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire." 

"I can't even imagine anything worse than dying by myself alone on Mount Washington in horrible weather, in pain, suffering, so the people who died really, really suffered," said O'Connor, of Lisbon Falls, Maine.

She said her talk presented "a chance to remember who they were, what they went through, what their experiences were, but also the memorials that were placed by people who loved them."

In September 1855, Bourne, 23, of Kennebunk, Maine, became the first documented death on Mount Washington.

She had convinced her wealthy uncle George and a cousin to visit the mountain, O'Connor said.

"The Bourne family made their riches in the shipbuilding trade, and George was so self-confident that he believed we're going to be fine," said O'Connor, adding George refused to hire a guide. "That was the worst decision he made, and it cost him his life, as well as Lizzie her life."

They ended up stranded on the mountain in the dark and cold, about 200 feet from the original Summit House. George built a makeshift shelter and attempted to keep Lizzie and his daughter warm with his body heat.

"She wanted to see the sunrise but sometime in the night her heart gave way, and she perished," said O'Connor, adding George was tormented by guilt and died a year later.

A monument for Lizzie was placed at the location where she died.

"Lizzie's ghost is seen rising from her memorial. Some people hear her wails, cries, but mostly whispers," said O'Connor. "My friend, Dan, who stayed at the Observatory for a while, spent one night cold and shivering by Lizzie's signage, and heard somebody whispering in his ear."

O'Connor continued, "But mostly her spirit is seen pointing to the summit, as if to say 'this is really where I wanted to go.'"

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Albert Dow III, 28, of Tamworth, was a volunteer with the Mountain Rescue Service in 1982 when he got a call during a family party to help search for two young climbers who had become lost in Huntington Ravine, said O'Connor, adding that Albert's mother did not want him to leave.

“Dow said his famous last words, ‘If it was me (who was lost), I'd want someone to go for me,’” said O'Connor. “And he went.”

Dow died in an avalanche during the rescue effort. Hugh Herr, one of the climbers who was rescued, lost both legs below the knee to frostbite but later returned to climbing using prosthetic limbs. Herr became a professor and researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-directs the Biomechatronics Group.

“He's considered the top researcher in his field, and he helped a number of the Boston Marathon bombing victims with new prosthetics,” said O'Connor. “He devotes his life in service to Albert Dow's memory.”

Dow and Herr's story is the subject of "The Lions of Winter" by Ty Gagne.

Various reforms were made after Dow's death, including providing rescuers with workers' compensation coverage.

Other stories were mostly about adventurers who underestimated the mountain's lethality or those who made their living on the mountain and apparently decided to haunt it after their deaths.

William Curtis, 63, and Allan Ormsbee, 29, were renowned outdoor enthusiasts at the turn of the 20th century. Curtis was a founder of the Fresh Air Club.

Curtis was a founder of the Fresh Air Club. The two men were hiking the Crawford Path toward Mount Washington to attend an Appalachian Mountain Club meeting on June 30, 1900, when they were caught in a blizzard and died.

AMC later built a shelter that became Lakes of the Clouds Hut near where Curtis was found.

Ormsbee's plaque is located by the Crawford Path. Folklore says that if you pass the plaque, any disrespect will be treated as fighting words by his ghost.

"Do not say 'those fools, they shouldn't turn around. What were they thinking?'" said O'Connor. "You will be hit in your gut by a force if you criticize William Curtis and Allan Ormsbee."