National Perspective: New Hampshire Won't Go Quietly Into Third Place

 CRAWFORD NOTCH — Two hundred years ago this month, a ferocious storm moved through these mountains, prompting a massive landslide that killed seven members of the Willey family and two hired workers. More than two decades ago, the Great Stone Face, the beloved rock formation above Franconia Notch that was the symbol of this state and the inspiration for scores of 19th-century paintings and the soaring oratory of Daniel Webster, collapsed. Last week, the Democratic National Committee took steps to end more than a century's tradition of New Hampshire holding the first presidential primary, delivering the prize to South Carolina.

Nothing if not resilient in the face of sadness and crisis, New Hampshire — shaped by massive geological forces that created the hills and glens of this state, buffeted by economic forces that created and then demolished what once was the largest cotton textile complex on the globe — has hewn to tradition, nurtured a culture of independence, adjusted to powerful gales of change, even endured extreme winds (234 mph, most powerful recorded in the Northern Hemisphere) and bracing temperatures (wind chill minus 109 degrees Fahrenheit).