The Basin, Franconia Notch, White Mountains, N.H., 1907

About this postcard

The Basin, a deep glacial pothole in Franconia Notch, appears with its green pool and a small cascade spilling over a granite ledge. A wooden footbridge and a pipe cross the rocks above. The sender, Uncle Lawrence, plans to visit the next morning at nine. He writes of driving ten miles and coming through Crawford Notch in an observation car during a driving rain, calling it "the wildest part of the White Mountains in a storm." It cleared when he reached Bethlehem. The Basin was already a familiar stop for White Mountains tourists, and the message catches the era's travel: a ten-mile drive, a stormy mountain passage, and a planned morning at the pothole.