Destination: New Hampshire : Cloud Cover : Hilltop Mansion Elevates the Tourist Spirit

Shoe magnate Thomas G. Plant once wrote, with considerable understatement, that his New Hampshire hideaway was “an estate for a man who enjoys big things.”

And there’s no denying that his dream home, now a tourist attraction known as Castle in the Clouds, was built on an epic scale.

Here, atop a 1,300-foot-high hilltop overlooking the vast confusion of island-dotted bays and waterways that form Lake Winnipesaukee, Plant built his stately pleasure dome, his Xanadu. Using granite stones and oak beams, a small army of artisans labored three years to build the multimillionaire an eagle’s nest of a home, a place where he and his new wife could sit, quite literally, on top of the world.

Plant has long since gone to meet his maker, but his rock-solid, castle-like home still stands. And for the hundreds of lowlanders who flock daily to the home Plant called Lucknow (after the former Indian capital of the nabobs of Oudh) and to the thousands of acres of woods and mountains that surround it, Castle in the Clouds is a peak experience.

Here, at the edge of an ancient volcano, amid the highest peaks in the Ossipee Mountains, the views are as expansive as anything you’d get from a flying carpet. From Castle in the Clouds, you might survey the green forests of Moultonborough Neck, the hamlet of Melvin or the hummock on Rattlesnake Island. Then there’s Little Wortleberry Island, Far Ozone Island and Little Bear Island, to name a few. The Belknap Mountains rise on the southern horizon, distinguished by Gunstock, striped with ski trails.

At the high end of the twisting road that switchbacks upward to the castle, visitors can tour the old mansion, saddle up for rides through the mountains, hike to waterfalls and dramatic lookouts or toss handfuls of Purina Trout Chow to the giant rainbows that thrum in the waters of Shannon Pond.

The castle itself is the biggest draw. Once off the Jeep-drawn tram that ferries visitors to the mansion, crowds gawk at the sturdy stone edifice Plant moved into in 1914. The millionaire, who began working a menial job in a shoe factory at the age of 13, showed such ingenuity and creativity that he owned the business by the age of 27. He soon purchased additional factories and, after amassing a fortune, retired at the age of 50 and began planning his home in the sky.

Most of Castle in the Clouds’ granite building blocks are shaped like pentagons, the five points representing the five major world powers in the years preceding World War I. It reportedly took a stonemason a full day to shape and lay three stones; at one point Plant employed about 1,000 stonecutters.

Inside, a self-guided tour leads through the old kitchen and pantry, the dining room, the game room, the bedrooms, baths and the library. And in true castle tradition, there’s even a secret room, reached by a small hidden door.

The dramatic library, guarded by a pair of huge winged griffins carved from a block of mahogany, is filled with Napoleonic memorabilia--statues, portraits, prints of the emperor leading his troops into battle, a scene from his marriage to Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise. Besides a knack for empire building, Plant and Napoleon shared a height of about 5 feet.

Upstairs, Plant’s bedroom on the east side of the house is sited to afford perfect views of the sun rising over Bald Knob, the rocky point framed by his window. His wife’s west-side bedroom provided a strategic lookout on the setting sun. In between was a breakfast nook with a romantic balcony. Today, the second-story walkway is a popular spot for newlyweds posing for pictures.

Castle in the Clouds hosts weddings almost weekly; it’s hard to imagine a more romantic spot to tie the knot.

Plant’s old home has taken on a new luster over the past few years.

The massive oak arbor was rebuilt, the floors restored and the walls painted. In fact, efforts to restore the property’s former grandeur are visible all over the estate--in miles of new post-and-rail fence ringing pastures for the horses, in new walkways and picnic areas and, most of all, in the new plant constructed to bottle the crystalline waters bubbling up out of numerous springs on Faraway Mountain.

The water gushing toward the plant and into plastic bottles rises in a sheltered, sandy-bottomed cistern about a mile away. The waters--more than 100 gallons per minute--swirl through the sand like transparent tornadoes.

This spring is one of many rising in the volcanic stone of the Ossipees; Plant’s property comprises the entire watershed for many of the springs that gurgle to the surface on the grounds of his former estate.

Much of the water pooled in the rock-walled cistern is then channeled toward the bottling plant via an underground pipeline. The excess gushes into a small reservoir, then begins its slow descent toward Winnipesaukee. The gently burbling flow is joined by a host of other spring-born tributaries as it tumbles along the course of a rocky brook.

The chorus of watery voices culminates at the Falls of Song, a popular sightseeing spot on the castle grounds.

The pure spring waters that drew the new owners--Castle Springs, LP--were also part of what lured Plant to this part of the world after searching all of North America and Europe for the perfect home site.

Plant harnessed the springs to provide his own water supply. He and his wife, Olive, drank it and bathed in it. It also fueled Plant’s bizarre bathing contraption--a shower in which the bather stood encircled by steel rings. At the twist of a lever, the shower-taker was bombarded by jets of water bursting forth with 70 pounds of pressure. The sprays were said to hit the bather’s skin like a rain of needles.

The bottlers hope the spring water’s fame will one day eclipse the mansion’s, and so they have changed the name of the Plant’s former estate to Castle Springs; the home is still called Castle in the Clouds.

Visitors are invited to tour the springs, visit the bottling factory for a peek at the operation, watch a brief video about the springs and an exhibit about water and the local geology. Just in case you work up a thirst, free samples are dispensed to visitors.

GUIDEBOOK

Castle in

the Clouds

Getting there: From LAX fly, with a change of planes, on TWA, United, USAir, Continental and Northwest to Manchester, N.H.; lowest round-trip fares start at about $458.

Castle in the Clouds is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, through Oct. 23. Closed for the winter. Opens early May.

Admission for adults is $10; $8 for seniors, $7 for students 11-17; free for children 10 and under. Prices for horseback trips begin at $25. Rides are by reservation only.

For more information: Castle Springs, P.O. Box 131, Route 171, Moultonborough, N.H. 03254 or call (603) 476-2352.