Indian Island, Meredith NH
Glen Hines of Houlton Maine and his wife, Diane, crafted the imposing 11,000-pound 8-foot tall replica of the Native American that graces Indian Island in Meredith Bay.
The small island was originally home to a zinc sculpture of an Indian that had been part of a collection owned by local coal magnate Edward H. Clough. Given to the town in 1924, the war-like Indian was dubbed “Chief Chocora” by the locals.
A historical state highway marker in the shadow of the jagged mountain next to Route 16 in Tamworth erected in 1965 recounts “The Chocora Legend”. In several versions, the legend’s sequence relates the mysterious death of Chicora’s son while in the care of a settler named Campbell. Suspicious of the cause, the Pequawket chieftain took revenge on the settler’s family. Then, in retaliation, Campbell killed Chocora on the peak of the mountain that now bears the Indian’s name.
Other accounts of the legend have Chocora pursued to the summit by white settlers. Rather rather than be captured and hung, the Indian leapt to his death but put a curse upon the villagers before committing suicide. In the weeks following his threat, an epidemic of cowpox struck the Mount Washington Valley, killing many of the settlers’ cattle.
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