The Origin of Candy Mt.

The mountains had been there for years, inhabited only by a few elves who had big sweet tooths. One winter day when snow covered everything, one of the elves was venturing down to the general store for some "smarties" and "tootsie rolls" when he saw three people getting out of a car, beside the cottage that was there.

The three: Jack and June and their son, Jeff, were from a clan of Hilliers who were spread far and wide throughout the countryside much farther than an elf could hike. They lived in Exeter, NH; Lexington, MA; West Virginia; Durham, NH; and Bennington, VT and they needed somewhere where the whole clan could get together and be silly and eat Grammy's cookies. The three gathered there that Sunday to look at this cottage on Newfound Lake. They were quite lucky, the cottage cost $14,500, exactly the amount June's mother had left her.

All the elves crept down to look at them, and they all agreed they liked the sight of them. Jack & Jeff looked around the house and thought it was just right, especially the large paneled living room. After looking around awhile they left, and that was the last the elves thought they would see of them. But the next week, they were back to buy the place and gain a right of way to the lake. The elves were very happy they would have neighbors.

A few years passed, the grandchildren began to get a little older. One day, June and Jack's son, Jim, was climbing up the mountains with his daughter, Molly. Molly and Jim decided to name the mountains, so Molly called the first mountain they came to Molly Mountain, and Jim called the second Candy Mountain (he must have seen some of the elves' candy wrappers lying around.) Molly's grandmother decided to switch the names of the mountains, so the first one would be Candy Mountain.

One day, Grammy climbed up the mountain to look at the lake, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw an elf carrying a root beer barrel, spring over a stump and slide down a hole. She had an idea; she decided to leave a note for the elves, asking them to share their candy with all the grandchildren. In return, the Hilliers would befriend the elves and immortalize them in painting, sculpture, and even their own "Elf House".

The next summer, the five grandchildren, Laura, Amy, Cynthia, Molly, and Katie climbed the mountain and found candy hanging from the trees, under lichen, in stumps, and everywhere imaginable. From that summer on, candy has always been found on Candy Mountain, and the children: the youngest Marshfield Hilliers, Matt, Erin, and Greg, as well as the older ones and even the adults have continued to climb the mountain, although no one has ever seen an elf again.

Written by Molly Hillier w/ help from the rest of the Hillier clan who made it happen.

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