Hannah Duston Massacre Site Statue

Penacook, New Hampshire

Hannah Duston (also spelled "Dustin"), her 6-day old baby Martha, and her nurse Mary Neff were kidnapped by Indians on March 15, 1697. After several days on the run north into New Hampshire, the Indians and their prisoners ended up here, on a small island (somewhere along the way an Indian grabbed baby Martha and smashed her to death against a tree).

Hannah, thoroughly pissed, snatched a tomahawk and began killing the Indians, aided by the nurse and a 14-year-old boy. By the time that they were through, 10 of the 12 Indians lay dead. Hannah collected the scalps as proof of her deed (and to collect a scalp bounty) and went home.

177 years passed. By 1874 New Hampshire had become part of the U.S., and Hannah had become an object of civic pride: the "Granite State Heroine." It may seem strange, but of all of the women who had ever lived in America, Hannah the Indian killer was the first to get a statue.

It stands on the spot where her massacre occurred, an impressive 35 feet tall. Its location on an otherwise undeveloped island adds to its majesty, but it also makes it an easy target for morons. Hannah's pedestal has been vandalized with graffiti and her nose has been broken. Her expression, despite the facial damage, is one of quiet resolve, or maybe blank shock. But it seems ill-suited to a woman who has just scalped ten Indians.

In her right hand is a hatchet, in her left, a tangled mass of scalps, which could be mistaken for a bouquet of wilted flowers if you didn't know what they were. The monument's inscription poetically refers to the Indians as "the war whoop tomahawk faggot and infanticides."

This statue is less satisfying overall than the angry Hannah Duston statue in her hometown of Haverhill, Massachusetts. But it does have the scalps (which the other lacks), and it is bigger, and it's more interesting to get to. Don't visit at dusk or dawn unless you want to be eaten alive by mosquitoes.