Amazing island values

[Descant]

Originally Posted by tis

And everybody thought Joe was nuts, nobody would want to rent a lot on the island.

Never mind build a dock on the broads.

I was too young to remember most names, but there was a member of Winter Harbor Yacht Club who had a Rattlesnake on the transom of his boat. I was told he was the owner of Rattlesnake Island. Was that Melanson? Or did he sell to Melanson? In the 50's the lake chart had a measured mile marked on Rattlesnake. There was a makeshift flagpole with a red flag at the summit.

[tis]

Originally Posted by Descant

Never mind build a dock on the broads.

I was too young to remember most names, but there was a member of Winter Harbor Yacht Club who had a Rattlesnake on the transom of his boat. I was told he was the owner of Rattlesnake Island. Was that Melanson? Or did he sell to Melanson? In the 50's the lake chart had a measured mile marked on Rattlesnake. There was a makeshift flagpole with a red flag at the summit.

I don't think Joe would have been a member of WHYC because he lived in Wolfeboro but he could have bought it from the guy you are thinking of. I don't know. The measured mile sounds familiar too, but like you, I was very young and not sure if I remember something like that or remember being told about it. My mom told me about how Joe would drive up in his big black car and tell her to get in, she was going to play with Bucky, his son.

[Descant]

Originally Posted by tis

I don't think Joe would have been a member of WHYC because he lived in Wolfeboro but he could have bought it from the guy you are thinking of. I don't know. The measured mile sounds familiar too, but like you, I was very young and not sure if I remember something like that or remember being told about it. My mom told me about how Joe would drive up in his big black car and tell her to get in, she was going to play with Bucky, his son.

I hesitate here because I don't like to get too far away from an original post, but---
The Public Utilities Commission published info about the lake prior to 1950, noting that WHYC was a group of yachtsmen who scheduled cruises to various areas of the lake. They formed under the WHYC name as Winter Harbor was a frequent anchorage. I've posted elsewhere about Don Posson from Winter Harbor who owned the Penguin, Admiral Byrd's barge when he went to the South Pole. Obviously inactive during the war, they later formed Endicott Estates, Inc. to buy a permanent location. In 1949, they bought the middle third of Welch Island, about 40 acres, with shorefront on both sides, cove and broads. In the mid-late 50's they started selling lots on the south/broads side to finance improvements in the cove. My father, as a club member, was one of the first buyers, and we're still there. He and Lester Shapiro and Alan Lydiard worked with PSNH to bring electricity to Welch Island in 1960.

Back to the thread theme---electricity later moved to the islands in the Forty's and the Varney's and the race was on for ever increasing values. In 1959, we paid $15.00 per front foot for shorefront. Inhospitable topography made Rattlesnake one of the last to be developed in any significant way.