Tales of an Old Observer - Bob Monahan Recalls the Obs' Early Days

Any annual meeting serves as a reunion of sorts, providing an opportunity for reflection and reminiscing about the days of old.

The 51st Annual Meeting of the Mt. Washington Observatory was such an occasion, as past and present "Obs" staffers and general members gathered at Wildcat Mountain two weeks ago to elect officers, receive updates on the non-profit organization's research projects, and above all, to renew friendships that in many cases span well over 50 years.

Quietly viewing the proceedings at Wildcat - and characteristically seated by choice out of the limelight, far from the speaker's podium - were two individuals who first stepped into the White Mountain history books as young men, 51 years ago. Holdovers from an earlier, less traveled era in the mountains when the pursuit of knowledge and prospects of adventure first lured them here, Alexander A. "Mac" McKenzie, 74, of Eaton, and Robert Scott "Grandpa" Monahan, 75, of Hanover, are the last surviving members of the four-man crew that manned the Observatory in that first winter of 1932-33.

A lifetime of change has occurred since McKenzie, Monahan, and the late Sal Pagliuca joined the late and now legendary Joe Dodge in his dream of operating a weather Observatory atop the northeast's highest peak. The larger-than-life Dodge - with whom Monahan co-founded the Obs - left his mark on the mountains as the manager of the Appalachian Mountain Club's Pinkham Notch Camp in a way that may never be duplicated again. An innovator in the field of microwave radio and FM transmission who assisted the crew from Pinkham, a renowned teller of tales, and a sparkplug for countless rescues over the years, Dodge retired from the A.M.C. in 1958. Active as a local weather Observer and as a Conway selectman, Joe died at the age of 74 in October 1973.

After serving as the Obs' observer for two years. Sal Pagliuca left to take up postgraduate work in meteorology at M.I.T. and later became the chief observer at Harvard's Blue Hill Observatory. An experienced electrical and mechanical engineer born in Naples, Italy, Sal served with the United States Army Air Forces in its Weather Directorate during World War II. Promoted to major while in the service of his adopted country, he was killed in a Jeep accident in 1944 while testing weather equipment on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina.

Alex McKenzie's four years as the Obs' radio operator and editor of its News Bulletin were highlighted by the world record wind blow of April 12, 1934, when the highest winds ever recorded on earth - 231 miles per hours - were registered on Mt. Washington. After a career in radio electronics, Alex and his wife returned to the Valley upon his retirement, and now reside in Eaton. Until recently, he remained actively involved with the Observatory, once again serving as the News Bulletin's editor, as did his wife.

Bob Monahan was the first member of that original Obs crew to leave, as he was recalled to active duty with the United States Forest Service when camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were being established throughout the White Mountain National Forest in May and June of 1933. A 1929 graduate of Dartmouth with a degree in forestry who also studied at the Yale School of Forestry, Monahan's ties to the White Mountains have remained strong over the years. After serving as the head of a 35-man side camp at Darby Field in Pinkham Notch at the age of 25 in the summer of 1933, Monahan - dubbed "Grandpa" by Joe Dodge when they first met back in 1924 - next spent the winter of 1933-34 as the superintendent of a 200-man CCC camp at Wild River. Among the projects under Bob's supervision that winter were the clearing of the Wildcat and Copper Mine Ski Trails with Franconia's Charlie Proctor, and the completion of the Evans Notch Road from North Chatham to Hastings Clearing.

Later accepting posts in the U.S. Forest Service's education division - assignments which drew him away from the White Mountains to Washington D.C. and San Francisco - Bob returned to Hanover in 1947 to serve as College Forester at his alma mater. In charge of the 27,000-acre Dartmouth College Grant in northern Coos County, he also managed the College Outing Properties. Retired 10 years ago, Monahan now divides his time between his home in Hanover and at a small hideaway cabin located at the Passaconaway end of the Bear Notch Road. A simple structure built in 1926 by legendary mountain man, friend and logger extraordinary Albert "Jigger" Johnson, Bob purchased the dwelling for $400, under the condition that Jigger could "stay there and use the place whenever he wanted." Bob gladly accepted the terms of the sales agreement, and became a close friend of the woodsman until his untimely death in 1935.

Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1908, Bob's lifelong affection and respect for the White Mountains dated back to 1920 when his father brought him on a family hiking expedition to the Presidentials. He returned to the mountains at the age of 16 in 1924, following in the footsteps of his older brother who had preceded him as a hutman three years earlier. Assigned to the A.M.C.'s two 1920-built cabins in Pinkham Notch, Bob's boss was none other than the then 26-year old Joe Dodge.

Laughing in retrospect, that his job was "anything Joe didn't want to do," Bob notes today that he was totally awed by Dodge's infectious energy, vitality and enthusiasm, as well as by his now renowned ability to recall names, places and dates. "Joe Dodge was always in there for every ball and strike called - he had a grasp of everything," Bob recalled following the recent Observatory meeting. "He was a leader and quite a guy - 10 years or so older than the rest of us, and he knew so much more. He was always a lot of fun to be around."

Pinkham Notch in 1924 was far different than the well traveled place it is today. The road up Porky Gulch - as Dodge dubbed the Notch when porcupines were plentiful and hikers scarce - was then a narrow, gravel covered road in summer, and not even plowed in the winter. Hiker traffic was slow, and overnight capacity limited, Bob recalls, but those who did visit Pinkham were treated to simple lodging, breakfast, lunch and dinner for just $2.50 a day.

Although those days are gone, Bob's weathered photographs attest that life for the early "kroo" at Pinkham was not that drastically different from today in many other respects. Priceless snapshots of a thin Monahan, a brimming Joe Dodge, and their accomplices-in-fun - such as overall AMC huts manager Milton "Red Mac" MacGregor - show the gang enjoying such time-honored Pinkham activities as "frog gonking" at Lost Pond for breakfast, creating human totem poles by sitting on one another's shoulders and of course, hiking. "I got $4.00 a week plus food and lodging," Bob recalls of those first few summers in the mountains, "but the experiences were invaluable."

Monahan returned to work at Carter Notch Hut in 1925 at the age of 17. Manning the fire tower atop Carter Dome that year was the man with whom the young, Dartmouth-bound Monahan was to enjoy a friendship that would last for years, Jigger Johnson. The tough, yet kindhearted logger regaled the impressionable youngster with stories of past logging drives in the North Country, brawls in loggers' taverns and camps, and hunting expeditions. Bob says that he didn't realize at the time that Jigger represented the last of a breed, nor that he was listening to the stuff of which legends are made. "But that's what made it nice," he asserts. "I know now that Jigger's life was a transition period form the old way of life of the woodsman and loggers, to the conventions of today, but at the time, Jigger and I just lived our lives. I'd bring him a three-day old newspaper from Pinkham so he could stay on top of things, and he'd tell me his stories."

Bob enrolled in Dartmouth's forestry program and joined the Dartmouth Outing Club in 1926, and returned to the mountains that summer to work at the AMC's Lakes of the Clouds Hut on Mt. Monroe. That winter, he led a small group of Dartmouth instructors and students on a trip to spend part of Christmas holidays at Camden Cottage atop Mt. Washington. The group backpacked numerous instruments to the summit and made various observations of wind and weather during the limited-time available.

Joe Dodge - who was then operating the AMC Pinkham Notch Camp in winter for the first time ever - joined the Camden party for part of the sojourn after Monahan invited him to do so. Dodge immediately became interested in the group's rudimentary observations, and he and Monahan began discussing plans for reoccupying a weather station on the summit.

"It was on the common ground of our mutual love and respect for Mt. Washington and a joint interest in its peculiar environment that Joe Dodge and I decided as early as 1926 to reoccupy the summit whenever conditions seemed favorable," Monahan explained in the opening chapter of his 1933 book, Mount Washington Reoccupied. Noting that it takes time for such plans to ripen, however, Monahan added that it wasn't until six years later that those plans would become fulfilled.

In the meantime, Monahan graduated from Dartmouth, went on to Yale for graduate work, and then spent part of the summer of '31 working in New Mexico running a transit for Spanish Americans. A bad summer for forest fires, Bob also headed west that year to flight blazes in Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest near the Salmon River headwaters.

Since that first winter visit to the summit in 1926, Dodge and Monahan had kept alive their Observatory idea. They agreed that the winter of 1932-33 would be the year to do it, when the International Polar Year Commission announced that a concerted attack on scientific problems would be undertaken throughout the world. The comprehensive effort would be done by taking observations at numerous isolated but strategically placed stations the world over.

Backed by such world-wide sentiment supporting the values of mountain meteorology, the reoccupation of Mt. Washington for weather observations became - as F. Allen Burt noted in his book, The Story of Mount Washington - a "foregone conclusion." Dodge obtained a grant for $400 from the New Hampshire Academy of Sciences for the project, emptying their total resources. In addition, the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory of Harvard, M.I.T. and the U.S. Weather Bureau all cooperated in the endeavor. For shelter, the E. Libby & Sons Company of Gorham - owners of the Mt. Washington Summit Road at the time - gave free winter use of the stage office on the summit, while the Appalachian Mountain Club loaned cots, bedding, and kitchen utensils from the Lakes of the Clouds hut.

Monahan had spent the summer of 1932 in Alaska on a photographic/glaciology expedition to Mount Fairweather with friend Brad Washburn, the noted cartographer and aerial photographer who later was to become the director Boston's Museum of Science. Returning in September, he found that the plans were all set for the reoccupation of the summit. Late September and early October were devoted to transporting eight months' worth of food and supplies as well as on the weatherproofing of the stage office and installing the various instruments.

After being storm-bound in the Valley for a few days by a blizzard, the crew headed for the summit on October 14,1932, accompanied by photographer Winston Pote and radio innovator Al Sise. Further snowstorms followed, as did such sights as the shadow of the summit projected upon the clouds below by the setting sun's clear nights when the meteor showers seemed within reach, and days when it seemed as though the whole fury of God was blowing down on their small but sturdily reinforced stage office. By November, winter had set in. Joe Dodge and Bob Monahan - along with Sal Pagliuca and Alex McKenzie - finally got what they were after.