Hanover

Hanover is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States, along the Connecticut River. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007.

Dartmouth College and the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory are located there. The Appalachian Trail crosses the town.

The main village of the town, where 8,636 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Hanover census-designated place (CDP), and is located at the junctions of New Hampshire routes 10, 10A, and 120. The town also contains the villages of Etna and Hanover Center.

History

Hanover was chartered by Governor Benning Wentworth on July 4, 1761, and in 1765–1766 its first European inhabitants arrived, the majority from Connecticut. Although the surface is uneven, the town developed into an agricultural community. Dartmouth College was established in 1769 beside the Common at a village called the Plain—an extensive and level tract of land a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Connecticut River, and about 150 feet (46 meters) above it.

At one point in its history, the southwest corner of Hanover was known as Dresden, which in the 1780s joined other disgruntled New Hampshire towns along the Connecticut River that briefly defected to what was then the independent Republic of Vermont. For a time, Dresden was capital of the republic. After various political posturings, however, the towns returned to New Hampshire at the heated insistence of George Washington. One remnant of this era is that the name Dresden is still used in the Dresden School District, an interstate school district serving both Hanover and Norwich, Vermont—the first and one of the few inter-state school districts in the nation.

Etymology

"Hannover" (as it was spelled in the 1761 charter) was named either after a local parish in Sprague, Connecticut, or after the House of Hanover in honor of the reigning British king, George III.

While it is likely that the name "Dresden" derived from Dresden in Germany, it has also been suggested that it could derive directly from the old Sorbian word drezg ("forest") or Drezd'ane, for an inhabitant of a forest.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 50.3 square miles (130.3 km2), of which 49.0 square miles (126.9 km2) is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2) is water, comprising 2.52% of the town. The primary settlement in Hanover, where over 75% of the town's population resides, is defined as the Hanover census-designated place (CDP) and contains the areas around Dartmouth College and the intersections of New Hampshire Routes 10, 10A, and 120. The CDP has a total area of 5.0 square miles (13 km2), of which 4.6 square miles (12 km2) is land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2) is water.

Hanover borders the towns of Lyme, Canaan, and Enfield, New Hampshire; Norwich, Vermont; and the city of Lebanon, New Hampshire. Inside the limits of Hanover are the small rural villages of Etna and Hanover Center.

The highest point in Hanover is the north peak of Moose Mountain, at 2,313 feet (705 m) above sea level. Hanover lies fully within the Connecticut River watershed.

There are a number of trails and nature preserves in Hanover, and the majority of these trails are suitable for snowshoes and cross-country skis. The Velvet Rocks Trail, located on the Appalachian Trail, has a number of rock climbing and bouldering spots.