This week on New Hampshire Crossroads, the North Country of New Hampshire reemerges as a timberland powerhouse.

People are more interested in staying here and making things improve as they go along.

Switchel, the colonial thirst quencher your great grandmother may have made, makes a comeback near Laconia.

One lady told me it removed plaque.

Well, all right, lady, it removes plaque.

And Chip Neal discovers a tale of romance and mystery behind the name Lorna Doone.

Hi, I'm Eloise Daniels, and this is New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music Local presentation of New Hampshire Crossroads on Channel 11 is made possible in part by Weeks Dairy Foods Incorporated, makers and distributors of fresh dairy products and premium ice creams for your family.

First NH Banks, serving the financial needs of individuals, corporations, and local governments throughout New Hampshire.

By a grant from the Union Leader Corporation, publisher of New Hampshire's statewide newspapers.

We're right for New Hampshire.

And Cineworks Productions, Incorporated, producers of high impact corporate and commercial programing for over two decades.

It was 100 years ago that the Brown Paper Company built a paper mill on the banks of the Androscoggin River in Berlin, New Hampshire.

That mill is still there and going strong, though today it is owned and operated by the James River Company.

To the people in the North Country, the mill and the forests that feed it are their lifeblood.

The people you'll meet have a combined experience of 144 years in the timber industry.

Some are old, some are young.

But their's is a story of perseverance and change and sameness.

Music This is the North Country.

Coos County, New Hampshire.

A land of mountains and rivers and forests, a land of boundless beauty.

In the cities and towns of the North Country, there's a pace to life that's different from most other places in the state.

Winter has a tendency to come a little earlier and stay a little longer.

Here in Berlin and the neighboring towns of Milan, Errol and Gorham, the folks who stay here do so for just one reason.

Timber.

Music If they don't actualy work at cutting or processing the 450,000 cords of wood that come through the mill each year, they run the diners and the shops that feed and clothe those who do.

Seems as though it's always been that way, and it probably always will.

I'm a local here in Berlin, born and raised.

My parents migrated here from Canada.

If it weren't for this mill here, there would be no Berlin.

Jule Shalhoub.

For the last 11 years, he's worked in the Cascade Paper Mill in Berlin, and his background is similar to most everyone else in the region.

Their parents emigrated from Canada or Russia or Scandinavia or Ireland to build themselves a home and a future in New Hampshire's North Country.

For many, like Bill Evans, working in the mill is a family tradition.

My grandfather started working here back in the early 1900s on the paper machines when they first started up here at Cascade, and my father was a millwright in Power and Steam up until he retired in 1965 or so.

And now I've been here for the last 15 years.

So we've been here quite a while.

But working in the timber industry has never been easy.

The job, whether it be in the mill or the forest or on the river, was inherently dangerous.

Old methods of clear cutting, that is, cutting all the trees in an area, could quickly turn a prosperous town into a ghost town.

But the people of the North Country, like the timber industry itself, are survivors.

There was the time during World War Two when most of the young men of the region were off fighting in Europe or the Pacific, and a manpower shortage threatened the mill.

That problem was solved by employing German prisoners of war from nearby Camp Stark as lumberjacks.

And whether it was Yankee ingenuity or a plain old stubbornness not to give up, the timber industry, and those who work it, continue.

Bill Thomas, 34 years a woodsman, remembers the early days filled with backbreaking work punctuated by raucous times.

When I first started, it was harsh logging and river driving, some trucks hauling wood.

But today it's strictly skitters on our land and trucking, big trucks, hauling legal loads, hauling wood into Berlin and other sawmills where we deliver our logs.

The old lumberjacks liked to party.

We had the [...] and the Russians and the Norwegians and the Frenchmen.

When you take Berlin, it was quite a crew.

They'd get down on Pleasant Street, Mason Street, and get in the beer parlors and have a few beers.

And of course, every lumberjack, when they have a few beers, they're the best.

So the other one is going to argue with him, and they're going to end up with a little brawl and get thrown out of the beer parlor.

But today we don't have that.

But they still have a few beers.

But you get more family oriented younger generation.

They get married and not so many old bachelors like we had years ago.

We had, years ago when I first started, there was a lot of fellows in their 40s, weren't married, and they’d come and stay in the woods for a week to a month and never leave.

But when they come back that following time after they've been out to town, they're a little bit shaky on Monday morning.

(logs falling down chute) And I’ve been there (inaudible) about 22 years.

Laurent Hooley is another 34 year veteran of the timber industry.

He, too, remembers the way things used to be.

Before they started this this wood room here it wasn't modernized the way it is now.

It wasn't like this at all.

Used to work with (inaudible), we had to use a strap chain and everything else.

Yeah, I load cart by hand, a little chip cart by hand, all (inaudible) Today, today, it almost like day and night compared the way it was then.

Matter of fact, bout a few years back, they used to have about close to 4000, 4000 workers over here at Brown Company then.

And now I don't think there’s more maybe than 10, 1100, 100 now compared to then.

Everything was all by hand.

Everything was handling and handled by hand.

But today they do, you know, they made an awful lot of changes.

Music There has indeed been a lot of change in the timber industry.

River drives, where thousands of cords of wood were floated downriver to the mill, have given way to the logging trucks.

Clearcutting is rare and technology now dominates the mill.

I think one of the biggest changes is the technology that has come in over the last 15 years.

Everything is computerized today.

Back, even when I first started here, there was no computers.

Everything was by feel, by what you saw, by what you heard.

It used to be a real art, being a paper maker.

And today is getting to be a little bit more of a science, with the computers.

All the older paper makers will still say it's an art, but with the computers, it helps a lot.

Russell Raiche, 13 years in the Cascade Paper Mill.

And it’s made it much more interesting to work with new equipment, all new computerized systems, and they even have, on the machine I work on, number one, they have even millions of dollars, I think it's 17 or $18 million rebuild next year on number one, the (inaudible).

So that would be interesting to see, get your hands on that, to learn how to run something like that.

Harris Young has spent 37 years, with first Brown, and now the James River Company.

He too has seen the impact of technology.

How’d it go?

All right?

Yes.

Good, good.

I never took typing in school.

And this this computer, when they brought in a year ago, was scared me to death.

But it's really the only way to go.

Everything is typed in and it's all the records.

It's all, it's easy for the company.

It's easier for us.

As you would imagine, as things changed in the mill and in the woodlands, things changed in town.

At one time there were 13 different churches in Berlin, including a Jewish synagogue and this Russian Orthodox church.

There were French grammar schools.

Now most of them are gone.

The ski jump north of town, once a focal point of winter activity, is no longer used.

Berlin is growing and changing.

It's more of a a spirit about the town.

James River has come into town and showed that they are interested in the region and building up the working morale around town and donating money to United Way and different things.

And people are more interested in staying here and making things improve as they go along.

I think it's getting back to where it used to be.

The population of Berlin years ago was 20,000 people, and then it dropped down around 12.5 or 13.

But I think, I think it's going to grow back as big as it was before.

As it was before.

That's pretty much what we found during our visit to the North Country.

The mill now has computers and machines to do a lot of the work men and horses did.

And lumberjacks are no longer rowdy, boisterous types looking to bust up town on a Saturday night.

But that's just on the surface.

Beneath the surface, the people of Berlin and other nearby towns love the North Country.

They may now spend more time at the movies or at the health club, but they'll probably still work in the mills or in the woodlands, or run the diners and the shops.

The timber industry is here to stay and so are the people of the North Country.

Seems as though it's always been that way, and it probably always will.

Music As you heard, the James River Company is putting a great deal of time and money into improving the mills in Berlin.

The population there is on the rise and the future looks bright for the mill and for the North Country.

Our next story is one of romance, mystery, intrigue, multinational secrets, and little known societies.

It seems that producer Chip Neal has found someone who knows the rest of the story behind Lorna Doones.

Music Lorna Doone.

True, most of us know that name, but for most of us, the name brings to mind nothing more than a package of cookies.

For others, perhaps a little older, it may bring back memories of a novel which was required reading in English class, a novel which was popular a hundred years ago.

Lorna Doone is about an enchanting Scottish lass who was kidnaped as a child by ruthless country noblemen, enduring hardship for years she was dramatically rescued by her hero John Ridd, a local farmer.

Finally, I think it's probably a safe bet to say there's only one person in New Hampshire who is one of the world's leading authorities on Lorna Doone, a self-admitted Lornatic.

He's president of the Anglo-American Lorna Doone Society.

And he actually knows the story of how these Nabisco-made cookies got their name.

Meet Pelham resident Whitman Pearson.

What happened was that the National Biscuit Company thought they would, way back in around 1912, Thought there would be a market for a Scottish shortbread, but nobody had any machines that would make those things.

They finally got the machine that would make the shortbread, and they decided to call this shortbread, I don't know why, Hostess Jumbles.

Well, Mr.

Earl Babbs, the vice president of Nabisco, was traveling over in the Exmoor area where the Lorna Doone story is so important, and his chauffeur told him something about the story.

And Babbs liked the name, especially when he had seen a picture where little Lorna said, if you please, sir, my name is Lorna Doone.

So he cabled back to the States and he said, let's give up Hostess Jumbles and called the new biscuit Lorna Doone Jumbles.

And they came back to him and said, well, why not drop the Jumbles?

So they named the biscuit Lorna Doone.

R.D.

Blackmore first published Lorna Doone in 1869, but it didn't become popular until some 30 years later, and actually was more popular here in the United States than in England.

Some of its popularity was due to the persistent rumor that it was based on a true story, a story which Blackmore learned while growing up in the Exmoor region of England, the very same setting of the book.

Blackmore openly encouraged this theory but never confirmed it, leaving the way open for Whitman Pearson's life to be caught up in the mystique of Lorna Doone.

I went to college, to the University of Pennsylvania and my English teacher, Doctor Bradley.

He was in the midst of a controversy or controversy, as they say in England.

He was in middle of this controversy as to whether Lorna ever lived or not, or whether she was just a figment of the imagination and whether she ever survived the shooting in the church.

And we students had to take one of the 19th century authors like Thackeray or Dickens.

And when I came in to to see him, he said, well, son, what do you want?

Who do you want to take?

And I said, Blackmore.

And he said, well, he only wrote one good book, didn't he, Lorna Doone?

I said, no, sir.

He wrote Kit and Kitty and Mary, Annalee and Clara Vaughan.

And I reeled him off and he said, My God, you know more about this man than I do.

So I said, may I take Blackmore?

And he said, sure, but if you do, I wish you'd do two things.

See if, find out if she ever existed and if she survived the shooting at or church.

And I've been working on that for 60 years.

60 years of infatuation with the Lorna Doone legend eventually led Whitman Pearson to the Lorna Doone Society.

There was a Blackmore society going way back, and that sort of ended up when the president of it died, though I think his wife has tried to keep that alive, but that sort of blended with our interests.

And the Lorna Doone Society is, well, something like the Sherlock Holmes Society I guess.

It's people, and not too many, who are vitally interested in Lorna Doone and the research.

And so I'm the president of it and, and Barry and Angela are other officers.

And we just we don't charge any dues.

We don't publish any magazine.

But we welcome anybody who's interested in the Lorna Doone legend.

By the way, Barry and Angela are Barry and Angela Gardner, his partners in England.

Together they have purchased a 300 year old inn in Dulverton, England, and the inn serves as the headquarters of the Society and houses a Lorna Doone gallery.

Music With some vague sense of being stared at more than ought to be, she dropped the heavy black lace fringing of the velvet hat she wore and concealed from the congregation, all except her bright red lips and the oval snowdrift of her chin.

I touched her hand, and she pressed mine, and we felt that we were close together, and God saw no harm in it.

Music I don't think there's any question that she lived, there’s no doubt about that.

But the real story, which is coming out in my colleague’s book, The Lore of Lorna, is interesting in itself.

And I thought Lorna Doone was just a cookie.

Just in case you were beginning to think Whitman Pearson is a full time Lornatic, you might be interested to know he spent most of his working life as an educator.

He spent a good deal of time in Japan and Europe overseeing the schools on our Air Force bases there.

Now, he splits his time between New Hampshire and Exmoor, England, where he and his partners are trying to establish a solid Lorna Doone presence in that resort area.

If your family has roots in New England farm country, chances are your parents or grandparents remember a homemade drink called switchel, which actually dates back to colonial times.

Now, switchel may be making a comeback, and it's all because of a very large quantity of cider vinegar, which at first nobody knew quite what to do with.

Corn in the fields Listen to the rice When the wind blows cross the water King Harvest has surely come You always look forward to coming in out of the hot sun and having a nice cold drink of ginger water or switchel.

Yeah, it was very good.

More switchel, Bob?

Yeah.

Thanks, Fred.

Don't mind if I do.

This picture of New England wheat farmers was taken some time in the 1890s.

This picture of young Parker Ayer and his father was taken near Stoddard in about 1924.

Today, Parker easily remembers the taste of something called switchel.

It tastes about like what my mother used to make, except it was ginger in hers.

And it was, the ginger had a soothing effect on your stomach, and yet it quenched your thirst.

The basic recipe for switchel was brought to New England from Old England in the 17th century.

It still can be found in traditional cookbooks today.

An uncarbonated mixture of cider vinegar and molasses, honey or maple syrup.

Parker hasn't made switchel in quite a few years.

In fact, we brought him this sample in an unusual form in a bottle with a label on it.

You see, switchel was always a homemade beverage.

Until now.

One lady told me it removed plaque.

Well, all right, lady, it removes plaque.

Here it is.

We're just making it, as you can see by hand.

And people think we're going to do 100,000 cases, which might happen.

I'm not saying it won't.

Last year, Aldi Howard and his brothers bought the Old Lakes Region winery near Laconia.

Thrown into the deal were 2500 gallons of pure apple cider vinegar.

At first, they had no idea what to do with it.

We had it.

We didn't want to throw it away.

It's real good quality vinegar, was made by the original owner, and so through a series of events, this recipe came to us for switchel.

This switchel tastes mighty good on a hot day, Bob.

Yup, sure does, Fred.

Here's a product that's been around for a long time.

You know, there have been an awful lot of New England farmers there were before me.

And chances are if if they really liked it and knew what the benefits were, that modern day man should know what the benefits are.

Aldi makes his switch from all natural New Hampshire ingredients in five gallon batches and bottles them by hand.

Now, obviously we're going to change our mode of operation here.

This is a bit archaic and I admit it, but you got to crawl before you can walk, as they say.

And here's the crawl.

Until recently, he was selling 3 or 4 bottles a week.

Then Yankee Magazine printed a short article about switchel, and he's been sending out 20 or 30 bottles a day, and his mail has been quite interesting.

One lady told me and wrote from New York somewhere and suggested that she mentioned switchel to several of her friends and they thought she was a little gone.

So she said, this is to get my standing in the community back.

Please send me a bottle of switchel.

So I said, okay.

And I wrote her a nice letter and I said, you know, this, this will increase your standing in the community.

They don't think you're daft.

And so that was kind of fun.

Aldi thinks switchel’s heritage is one of its strongest selling points as a hard working, hot weather pick me up.

Kind of a 17th century Gatorade.

There's that kind of Interest, I guess, lurking in the hills of New England, that here's switchel that people can now relate to as as a modern beverage.

Realizing that it was developed for, hey, you know, and if you think about that when it says on the bottle, if you sweat, you need switchel, when we looked at that and I tried to say, if you perspire, you need switchel.

That just didn't sound good.

So I said, sweat’s the word, that's and that's what we that's what we've done.

But that's my line, by the way, that that didn't have anything to do with switchel that I knew of ever before.

But but I thought that that really said it all.

And that particularly relates back to the New England farmer.

You know, here's a guy busting hump in the hay fields.

And it wasn't easy, they didn’t have balers they had forks and they're putting it up, you know?

So I thought, you know those guy put in a lot of hours sweating.

And so I just said that's it.

If you sweat you need switchel.

So that's how that came about.

Corn in the field, listen to the rice when the wind blows cross the water King Harvest is surely come My recipe is a secret.

I guess I'll keep, a New England secret wrapped in my heart.

So if anybody wants to know the exact ingredients, I won't tell him.

I think that's really fair.

I hear they've got something new over at the general store called Coca Cola.

Whatever it is, Fred, it'll never replace switchel.

Aldi thinks the real potential of switchel is very close to its original use as an energy drink, especially for athletes who have to pace themselves like marathoners, bicyclists, mountain climbers.

Aldi would even like to see switchel at the sidelines at New England Patriots games.

Currently, switchel is only available through Aldi Howard at the New Hampshire Winery near Laconia.

If you'd like more information, drop us a line here at New Hampshire Crossroads and we'll put you in touch.

For those of you who enjoyed our presentation last week on Marguerite Matthews as Seacoast author Sarah Orin Jewett, we'd like to credit Portsmouth writer Lee Bollinger for so effectively adapting Jewett’s work for the stage.

And we'd like to thank the Jacksons for sharing their grounds with us here on the Oyster River in Durham.

That's our show for this week.

We hope you join us next week when Fritz Wetherbee visits a virtuoso on a musical instrument called the glass harmonica.

It was invented by Ben Franklin.

Haydn and Beethoven composed for it.

Yet today the instrument is virtually unknown except in Newmarket.

And we'll visit the Rockingham Ballroom near Exeter, where dancers and big bands have been coming together since 1934.

For New Hampshire Crossroads, I'm Eloise Daniels.

Theme Music Local presentation of New Hampshire Crossroads on Channel 11 is made possible in part by Weeks Dairy Foods Incorporated, makers and distributors of fresh dairy products and premium ice creams for your family.

First N.H.

Banks serving the financial needs of individuals, corporations, and local governments throughout New Hampshire.

By a grant from the Union Leader Corporation, publisher of New Hampshire's statewide newspapers.

We're right for New Hampshire.

And Cineworks Productions, Incorporated, producers of high impact corporate and commercial programing, for over two decades.

Theme Music