Mount Washington. Mount Washington, called Agiocochook by some Native American tribes, is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 ft and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory recorded a windspeed of 231 miles per hour at the summit, the world record from 1934 until 1996. Mt. Washington still holds the record for highest measured wind speed not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone. The mountain is located in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, in the township of Sargent's Purchase, in Coös County, New Hampshire. While nearly the whole mountain is in the White Mountain National Forest, an area of 60.3 acres surrounding and including the summit is occupied by Mount Washington State Park. The Mount Washington Cog Railway ascends the western slope of the mountain, and the Mount Washington Auto Road climbs to the summit from the east. The mountain is visited by hikers, and the Appalachian Trail crosses the summit. Other common activities include glider flying, backcountry skiing, and annual cycle and running races such as the Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb and Road Race. Before European settlers arrived in the region, the mountain was known by various indigenous peoples as Kodaak Wadjo or Agiochook or Agiocochook. The Algonquians called it Waumbik, white rocks. The first European to mention the mountain was Giovanni da Verrazzano. Viewing it from the Atlantic Ocean in 1524, he described what he saw as high interior mountains. The Abenaki people inhabiting the region at the time of European contact believed that the tops of mountains were the dwelling place of the gods, and so among other reasons did not climb them out of religious deference to their sanctity. Darby Field claimed to have made the first ascent of Mt. Washington in 1642. Field climbed the mountain in June of that year to demonstrate to the Abenaki chief Passaconaway that the Europeans bargaining for tribal land were not subject to the gods believed to inhabit the summit, a primarily political move that facilitated colonists' northern expansion. Field again summited Agiocochook in October 1642 on an early surveying expedition that created maps of land as far as Maine, maps which assisted the delegations from the Massachusetts colony seeking to acquire the more arable coastal regions. A geology party, headed by Manasseh Cutler, named the mountain in 1784. The Crawford Path, the oldest mountain hiking trail in the United States, was laid out in 1819 from Crawford Notch to the summit and has been in use ever since. Ethan Allen Crawford built a house on the summit in 1821, which lasted until a storm in 1826. Little occurred on the summit itself until the mid-19th century, when it was developed into one of the first tourist destinations in the nation, with construction of more bridle paths and two hotels. The Summit House opened in 1852, a 64-foot-long stone hotel anchored by four heavy chains over its roof. In 1853, the Tip-Top House was erected to compete. Rebuilt of wood with 91 rooms in 1872-1873, the Summit House burned in 1908, then was replaced in granite in 1915. The Tip-Top House alone survived the fire; today it is a state historic site, recently renovated for exhibits. Other Victorian era tourist attractions include a coach road, now the Mount Washington Auto Road, and the Mount Washington Cog Railway, both of which are still in operation. For forty years, an intermittent daily newspaper, called Among the Clouds, was published by Henry M. Burt at the summit each summer, until 1917. In November 2010, it was revealed that Orlando, Florida-based CNL Financial Group, which owns the Mount Washington Hotel at the foot of the mountain, had formally filed to trademark the Mount Washington name. CNL officials said they were directing their efforts against other hotels that use the mountain's name and not the numerous businesses in the area that use it. CNL's application at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeks registration of the trademark Mount Washington for any retail service, any restaurant service, and any entertainment service. The summit station of Mount Washington has an alpine climate or tundra climate, although it receives an extremely high amount of precipitation, atypical for most regions with such cold weather. Lower elevations have a subarctic climate. The weather of Mount Washington is notoriously erratic. This is partly due to the convergence of several storm tracks, mainly from the Atlantic to the south, the Gulf region and the Pacific Northwest.
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