Alton Bay News

Water may be dampening some people's passion for travel, but there remains plenty to do--indoors and out--by just venturing a little to the north It has been quite the rainy summer.

Assuming there's not a thunderstorm headed our way this weekend - and, yes, that's a big if - there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate Independence Day with a fireworks display.

Fireworks retailers in the Lakes and Seacoast regions are reporting solid sales for this year's Fourth of July weekend.

It's been a great many years since I first visited Lake Winnipesaukee and fell in love with the crystal clear waters of New Hampshire's "Big Lake." A teenager at the time, I came up from New York for an idyllic first job on one of the lake's small islands - the days filled with swimming, boating, tennis and water skiing.

As the weather warms up, many businesses in the Lakes Region are looking ahead to their summer season and are cautiously optimistic that slower sales in certain areas will pick up as tourists and seasonal residents begin to arrive.

There were a lot of new things about the Big Lake Half Marathon this year. A new primary sponsor came on board in Harvard Pilgrim.

Before a woman who "lost everything" in an Alton fire last year learned a 10-year-old found more than $8,000 of her money, Arie Johnston had to defy his grandmother's orders.

Sunday, April 19, 2009 Send listings to communityweekly fosters.com. Winners are ... DOVER - April 7 Dover Duplicate Bridge Club winners are: first, Stephen Robbins and Phil Desfosses; second, Patrick and Judy Parks; third, Ruth Cunniff and Carol Leonard; and fourth, Carl Vancelette and Eric Fillion.

In 32 years of fighting fires, Rochester Fire Chief Norm Sanborn thought he'd seen it all.

One witness to the devastating fire in Alton, N.H., says she saw it from almost exactly the spot where she watched a similar fire 64 years earlier.

VICTORIA GUAY/STAFF PHOTO Katie Fogell, who works and lives at the Christian Conference Center in Alton, said her friends' cottage, which located just a couple houses away from where she and her husband, John Fogell live, had the walls of their cottage covered with pictures of their children and grandchildren, precious memories lost during the ...

Fire Chief Scott Williams remains humble. He defers accolades for his quick decision-making on April 12, which prevented a historic 14-alarm fire at the Christian Conference Center on the bay from getting out of control, to the men and women who fought the blaze - and the dispatchers who managed the response.

"Those who might well be in a turmoil of despair over conditions existing today, let them come to the campground for proof that there is still hope for a better world." Alfred Vollmeke "Story of the Campground" Vollmeke wrote the above in a thin volume - published in 1942 and available at Alton's Gilman Library - that contains some fanciful, and ...

Sunday, April 19, 2009 Paul and Marsha Berry/Courtesy photo A 14-alarm fire consumes a structure at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center on April 12.

Route 11 has been shut down between Alton and Gilford as firefighters from around the state battle a 10-alarm fire at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center.

Firefighters from Alton and several surrounding communities are responding to a conflagration at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center.

An insurance adjuster measures the foundation of a cottage, all that is left of the structure after a fire tore through 45 buildings at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center on Easter Sunday.

About 50 structures were destroyed and four firefighters were injured in a multiple-alarm blaze yesterday at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center.

A disaster relief fund has been set up for the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center, which was destroyed by a massive fire on Sunday.

Owners of summer cottages in a tight-knit Christian community gathered to console each other Monday after a massive fire roared through the property on Easter Sunday, destroying dozens of buildings that brought families together for generations.