Hart's Location, New Hampshire

Hart's Location is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Since 1948, the town has been one of the first places to declare its results for the New Hampshire presidential primary and U.S. presidential elections.[3]

Hart's Location, New Hampshire
Town
Looking north along U.S. Route 302 in Hart's Location
Looking north along U.S. Route 302 in Hart's Location
Location in Carroll County, New Hampshire
Location in Carroll County, New Hampshire
Coordinates: 44°05′11″N 71°21′07″W
CountryUnited States
StateNew Hampshire
CountyCarroll
Incorporated1795
Government
 • Board of Selectmen
  • Mark R. Dindorf
  • Guy Putnam
  • John Gallagher
Area
[1]
 • Total18.78 sq mi (48.65 km2)
 • Land18.68 sq mi (48.38 km2)
 • Water0.10 sq mi (0.27 km2)  0.56%
Elevation
897 ft (273 m)
Population
 (2020)[2]
 • Total68
 • Density4/sq mi (1.4/km2)
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (Eastern)
ZIP Code
03812
Area code603
FIPS code33-34500
GNIS feature ID0872015
Websitewww.hartslocation.com

The population was 68 as of the 2020 census.[2] It was incorporated in 1795.[4] Hart's Location maintains a board of selectmen, but is otherwise dependent on the town of Bartlett and Carroll County for services. Home to Crawford Notch State Park, which is noted for its rugged mountain beauty, the town is crossed by the Appalachian Trail.

History
Old Willey House (1793–1898)

Hart's Location was named after Colonel John Hart of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1772, the land was granted to Thomas Chadbourne, also of Portsmouth.[5] Native Americans used a trail up the Saco River valley through Crawford Notch, and during the French and Indian Wars, many English captives were taken to Canada that way. Despite this, the pass through the White Mountains was otherwise unknown until 1771, when Timothy Nash discovered it hunting moose, and told Governor John Wentworth.[6]

The obscure Indian trail transformed into the Coös Road, on which was built a small public house in 1793. It was abandoned, but in 1825 Samuel Willey Jr. occupied it with his wife, five children, and two hired hands.[7] During a violent storm on August 28, 1826, they all died in a landslide known as Willey's Slide. They fled their home and took refuge in a shelter, but it was destroyed while the house remained unscathed. A rock outcrop uphill divided the slide, which flowed around the home and reunited below it. The door was found gaping, a bible open on the table. Their tragedy inspired the short story "The Ambitious Guest" (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mount Willey was named in their memory. The house became part of a larger inn, then burned in 1898. Today, the location is a state historic site.[8]

In 1875, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad completed its line up through Crawford Notch. Passengers thrilled to traverse the Frankenstein Trestle, 520 feet (158 m) long and 85 feet (26 m) above the ravine floor, and then the Willey Brook Bridge, 400 feet (122 m) long and 94 feet (29 m) high. Later part of the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad, the route is still traveled by the Conway Scenic Railroad.[9]

Geography
Frankenstein Cliff c. 1905

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 18.8 square miles (48.6 km2), of which 18.7 square miles (48.4 km2) are land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km2), or 0.56%, are water.[1]

The shape of Hart's Location is unusual: about 11 miles (18 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, with crooked boundaries that echo the confines of Crawford Notch, threaded by the upper Saco River and U.S. Route 302 near the centerline of the town, and pinched from both sides between steep mountains and in some areas sheer cliffs above. This anomaly is heightened on maps that show county lines: Coos County lies immediately to the east and Grafton County to the west, but Hart's Location is part of Carroll County, though barely connected to it.

The highest point in Hart's Location is 3,900 feet (1,200 m) above sea level along the town's western boundary, beneath the summit of 4,285-foot (1,306 m) Mount Willey. Arethusa Falls, New Hampshire's highest waterfall, located in the neighboring township of Livermore, is a popular hiking destination with access from U.S. Route 302 in Hart's Location. The town lies fully within the Saco River watershed.[10]

The town is a popular ice climbing destination in the winter months.

Demographics
Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
187026—
188070169.2%
1890187167.1%
190038−79.7%
191085123.7%
192035−58.8%
193029−17.1%
194017−41.4%
195011−35.3%
19607−36.4%
197070.0%
198027285.7%
19903633.3%
2000372.8%
20104110.8%
20206865.9%
U.S. Decennial Census[2][11]

As of the census[12] of 2000, there were 37 people, 15 households, and 10 families residing in the location. The population density was 2.0 inhabitants per square mile (0.77/km2). There were 50 housing units at an average density of 2.7 per square mile (1.0/km2). The racial makeup of the location was 97.30% (36 people) White, with 2.70% (one person) citing themselves as from two or more races.

There were 15 households, out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.7% were married couples living together, and 33.3% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.10.

In the location the age distribution of the population shows 24.3% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 35.1% from 25 to 44, 8.1% from 45 to 64, and 27.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males.

The median income for a household in the location was $41,250, and the median income for a family was $70,833. Males had a median income of $26,250 versus $28,750 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,609. None of the population and none of the families were below the poverty line.

Politics

Federal elections
Main article: New Hampshire midnight voting

New Hampshire law allows towns with fewer than 100 residents to open the polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.[13] Hart's Location is one of the New Hampshire communities where the first votes are cast in the Democratic and Republican New Hampshire primaries, the first presidential primaries in the United States during each presidential election year. The Hart's Location midnight voting tradition, which began in 1948, actually predates the more widely known Dixville Notch practice; however, Dixville Notch generally receives greater publicity.

Election results

Boldfaced names indicate the ultimate nationwide winner of each contest:

1996
Dem. primary:
(12 votes)		Rep. primary:
(19 votes)		General election:
(31 votes)
Bill Clinton – 12Lamar Alexander – 8Bob Dole – 13
Bob Dole – 3Bill Clinton – 12
Pat Buchanan – 3Ross Perot – 4
Steve Forbes – 3Harry Browne – 2
Phil Gramm – 1
Colin Powell – 1, write-in
2000
Dem primary:
(12 votes)		Rep primary:
(14 votes)		General election:
(30 votes)
Bill Bradley – 9John McCain – 9George W. Bush – 17
Al Gore – 3George W. Bush – 5 Al Gore – 13
2004
Dem. primary:
(16 votes)		Rep. primary:
(13 votes)		General election:
(31 votes)
Wesley Clark – 6George W. Bush – 13George W. Bush – 16
John Kerry – 5John Kerry – 14
Howard Dean – 3Ralph Nader – 1
John Edwards – 2
2008
Dem. primary:
(13 votes)[13]		Rep. primary:
(16 votes)[13]		General election:
(29 votes)[14]
Barack Obama – 9John McCain – 6Barack Obama – 17
Hillary Clinton – 3Mike Huckabee – 5John McCain – 10
John Edwards – 1Ron Paul – 4Ron Paul – 2, write-in
Mitt Romney – 1
2012
Dem. primary:
[15]		Rep. primary:
(13 votes)[15]		General election:
(33 votes)[16]
Barack Obama – 10Mitt Romney – 5Barack Obama – 23
Ron Paul – 4Mitt Romney – 9
Jon Huntsman – 2Gary Johnson – 1
Newt Gingrich – 1
Rick Perry – 1
2016
Dem. primary:
(21 votes)		Rep. primary:
(14 votes)		General election:
(37 votes)[17]
Bernie Sanders – 12John Kasich – 5Hillary Clinton – 17
Hillary Clinton – 7Donald Trump – 4Donald Trump – 14
Mark Stewart Greenstein – 2Chris Christie – 2Gary Johnson – 3
Jeb Bush – 1Bernie Sanders – 2
Ben Carson – 1John Kasich/Sanders (write-in) – 1
Marco Rubio – 1
2020
Dem. primary:
(18 votes)[18]		Rep. primary:
(20 votes)[18]		General election:
(43 votes)[19]
Amy Klobuchar – 6Donald Trump – 15 Joe Biden – 23
Elizabeth Warren – 4Bill Weld – 4Donald Trump – 20
Andrew Yang – 3Mary Maxwell – 1
Bernie Sanders – 2
Joe Biden – 1
Tulsi Gabbard – 1
Tom Steyer – 1

The community's voting tradition received a nod in the 2002 third-season episode of US television program The West Wing, in an episode entitled "Hartsfield's Landing", named after a town modeled on either Hart's Location, or its companion, Dixville Notch.

See also

References
  1. "2021 U.S. Gazetteer Files – New Hampshire". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  2. "Hart's Location town, Carroll County, New Hampshire: 2020 DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171)". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  3. Schworm, Peter (January 7, 2008). "N.H. towns vie for late-night voter limelight". The Boston Globe.
  4. "Hart's Location Town Services". Hart's Location official website. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  5. "New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile". nh.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  6. Austin J. Coolidge & John B. Mansfield, A History and Description of New England; Boston, Massachusetts 1859
  7. "RootsWeb.com Home Page". www.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  8. "New Hampshire Division of Parks & Recreation — Story of the Willey Family". nhstateparks.org. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  9. "Crawford Notch". whitemountainhistory.org. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  10. Foster, Debra H.; Batorfalvy, Tatianna N.; Medalie, Laura (1995). Water Use in New Hampshire: An Activities Guide for Teachers. U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Geological Survey.
  11. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  12. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  13. Canfield, Clarke (January 8, 2008). "McCain, Obama, get early votes in N.H. villages". The Boston Globe. Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 2, 2008. Retrieved January 8, 2008.
  14. "Obama wins in early-voting towns". BBC Online. November 4, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  15. "Hart's Location, New Hampshire". hartslocation.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012 – via Wayback Machine.
  16. "First Election Day voters, in two tiny N.H. locations, give Obama lead". CBS News. November 6, 2012.
  17. "2016 Election Results - Hart's Location". Town of Hart's Location. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  18. "First results of 2020 New Hampshire Primary are in after midnight voting". WMUR. February 11, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  19. "2020 Election Results". Hart's Location. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
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