Natural Beauty
Tatoskok Lake
Tatoskok Lake is one of the most pristine and inspiring lakes in all of New Hampshire. Local ecologists believe that it has one of the most diverse population of fish in the northeast but cannot prove it.
If you are a hobbyist fisherman, Tatoskok Lake is surely a destination you will want to sink your line in. However, we do not recommend it. There are no docks on Tatoskok Lake and, in our almost 400 years of being a town, there are no stories of anyone ever returning from a fishing trip on Tatoskok Lake.
This is why Cradensburg residents have come to use the expression, "Look with your eyes, not with your boat."
Farm Hill Park
"The Nice Park"
A visit to Cradensburg can't be complete without a walk through Farm Hill Park. Idyllic winding pathways through towering red oaks immerse the senses in picturesque New England beauty reserved for post cards.
Unlike the other park, the trees all seem to strive to be bucolic and welcoming. The playground attempts to be precisely the way your mind wants a playground to be, and always offers up the best photos of your runny-nosed four year old that you can share on Instagram. Visual proof that you don't neglect your kid, freeing you up to spend your time scrolling through social media rather than interfacing directly with the short person you created.
The nice park doesn't judge you when you give your little tyke a thumbs up for a maneuver on the slide that you didn't actually see because you were looking at compression pants on Facebook.
At Farm Hill Park, there aren't pavilions full of the weirdest people Cradensburg has to offer. Unlike the other park. And there aren't all those creepy houses lingering in the background that you will strive and fail to crop out of your nearly perfect picture.
Farm Hill Park: photographic evidence that you're a good parent living the good life.
Swamp Hill Forest
Okay, so apparently you're the kind of person who doesn't recognize good advice when you see it and you skipped right over our suggestion to go to Farm Hill Park. "I want more options," you say. "I wonder what else there is to see," you say.
Okay. Well, we warned you.
If you're the kind who doesn't mind a forest darker than Mirkwood, or who doesn't mind the strange moaning that comes from some direction you can't quite distinguish other than "deeper" in the wood, then maybe you want to check out Swamp Hill Forest.
Maybe you want to endure the insatiable mosquitoes who pack onto your exposed skin so densely they feel like a you're wearing a crawling sweater.
Maybe you'd really like to run into the young girl's voice that comes up to your left ear when you're relieving yourself and asks "Wanna play?" but when you jump at the noise, accidentally getting whizz on your cargo pants, you can't find its source.
Maybe you're attracted to Swamp Hill Forest because you heard that it's the home of the Muskogdemoos.
Okay. Whatever. Go there, then.
Old Makwuk
For those who don't mind traipsing to the heart of the other park, you will be rewarded and terrified with a view of Old Makwuk, an ancient white pine (we think).
Historical records at the Cradensburg Town Library detail the precolonial presence of Old Makwuk in the region. The best information from these oral traditions suggests that Makwuk is still as frightening and cross as it was when it was Young Makwuk. If it was ever young.
Dendrochronologists at The Local College estimate that Makwuk is at least five hundred years old, possibly more. Abenaki and other indigenous traditions on the subject of Old Makwuk is scant, but some of those suggest Makwuk may be as old as eight hundred.
Here in Cradensburg, we're all pretty frightened of Makwuk. The only reason anyone ventures close to this towering, gnarled...um, being (?), is because it's been said to grant wishes when it's in a good mood.
