Story Preservation Initiative’s New Hampshire History series traces the state’s past across many centuries, beginning with its earliest human history and moving forward through periods of profound change.
The series opens with Deep Time, which illuminates the thousands of years before European settlement, when Indigenous communities lived on and understood this land long before written records. This foundational perspective grounds the series in the deep continuity of Indigenous presence and knowledge in the region.
As the series unfolds, later recordings will move the historical timeline forward to examine European settlement, the arrival of enslaved Africans, and transformative forces such as the railroad, which has already been examined in the series for its role in reshaping transportation, industry, and daily life across the state. Further along, the series will explore how industries such as textiles and logging altered both the population and the landscape, and how tourism and recreational ventures capitalized on New Hampshire’s rugged beauty.
Taken together, these stories will reveal the layered history of New Hampshire and the long interplay between human endeavor and the natural world, showing how each era has contributed to the state’s evolving identity.
Deep Time
12,000 BCE – 1600 CE
Rick Kfoury
The Impact of the Railroad