The North Branch of the Contoocook River is a 17.9-mile-long (28.8 km) river located in southwestern New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Contoocook River, part of the Merrimack River watershed.
The North Branch begins in a highland region of lakes, swamps, and intricate stream networks in the town of Stoddard, New Hampshire. The New Hampshire GRANIT geographic information system places the beginning of the North Branch at the outlet of Rye Pond in the extreme southeast corner of Stoddard. Additional significant flow quickly arrives when the outlet of Highland Lake and Island Pond joins from the north. From here to Franklin Pierce Lake, the North Branch consists of a stairstep-like series of flatwater and wetlands interspersed with sections of whitewater that are popular among New England kayakers. Below Franklin Pierce Lake it is a short distance to the Contoocook River in Hillsborough. Beards Brook enters the North Branch in Hillsborough just upstream of the river's end at the Contoocook.
New Hampshire Route 9 follows the North Branch for most of the river's length.
Famous quotes containing the words north, branch and/or river:
“I meet him at every turn. He is more alive than ever he was. He has earned immortality. He is not confined to North Elba nor to Kansas. He is no longer working in secret. He works in public, and in the clearest light that shines on this land.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“My favorite figure of the American author is that of a man who breeds a favorite dog, which he throws into the Mississippi River for the pleasure of making a splash. The river does not splash, but it drowns the dog.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)