BERLIN, N.H. – Ever since state and tourism officials opened New Hampshire’s newest state park here last month, the response has been overwhelming and much welcomed.

Bought by the state Bureau of Trails with funds from all-terrain-vehicle registration fees, the 7,200-acre park’s primary use is ATV riding. It is off Route 110, three miles west of Berlin’s City Hall.

Sixteen miles of trails were created and opened this summer, giving people a tantalizing taste of what’s to come.

“I can’t wait until they expand it! Up to 200 miles in about five years!” Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson said Thursday evening. Last week, he bought an ATV and tried out the new trails.

Initially, he wanted the bureau to create 50 miles – not 16 – before hiring an engineering firm to design a master plan of the park’s future multi-use trail system.

Horizons Engineering of Littleton, N.H., is expected to complete the plan in November and finalize it in December. A forum to gain input from the public will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at the New Hampshire Community Technical College in Berlin.

Early beginnings

In 2004, when many New Hampshire towns didn’t want anything to do with ATVs, it was Danderson who broached the idea to Sean O’Kane, commissioner of the state’s Department of Resources and Economic Development.

“He looked at me like I had two heads, and asked, ‘You want ATVs?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ At that time, though, it was for a smaller parcel than what we got,” Danderson said.

What they got last fall for $2.16 million from landowner loggers Thomas and Scott Dillon of Madison, Maine, was 5,600 acres on the southwest side of Route 110, and 1,600 acres on the northeast side of the highway.

The Dillons retained rights to harvest timber from the property during the five-year purchase period, and the right, in perpetuity, to extract gravel from three existing gravel pits.

That was just fine with Danderson.

“Where they cut wood, they create roads, which for us, is pretty much for free, and, it creates lots of good views,” he said.

Berlin’s gift

Details are also still being fine-tuned to add Berlin’s gift to the park: another 300 acres around Jericho Lake, the lake itself and its facilities.

“This park has the potential of being the largest ATV park on the East Coast! There’s going to be a huge economic impact,” Dick Huot, president of the Androscoggin Valley ATV Club, said early Wednesday evening from his Berlin home. The club maintains several miles of area trails.

The property, which has a long history of logging and timber management, provides views of the Kilkenny Range, the Mahoosuc Mountain Range in New Hampshire and Maine, the northern Presidential Range, local peaks and the Androscoggin and Upper Ammonoosuc river valleys.

The park’s western side abuts White Mountain National Forest land.

Significant economic boost

Huot raved about the park, which he and others say will significantly boost Berlin’s economy, providing much-needed jobs and tourism dollars.

“Berlin has never been known as a destination area, except for logging trucks,” he said.

Pam Laflamme, Berlin’s city planner, and Danderson agreed with Huot.

“It’s definitely changed how the city is being looked at,” Laflamme said Friday in her City Hall office.

“There’s been no lodging in Berlin for years. There wasn’t a lot in Berlin that was tourist focused. But, in the last few years, there’s really been a lot of focus.

“People are coming here more and more now. I’ve even been dealing with a lot of proposed development in the Route 110 area. The ATV park has really generated a renewed interest in putting stuff in that area, so I’m really encouraged and definitely looking forward to that,” Laflamme said.

Likewise with Danderson.

New image

“This park will change Berlin’s image from that of a smelly mill town to what it actually is,” a natural resources-based tourism destination, Danderson said.

They and other state and local officials expect to attract ATV enthusiasts from as far away as the West Coast to what may soon officially be dubbed Jericho Mountain State Park. Developers and businesses are also catering to the new needs and wants now that Berlin’s paper mill is extinct.

“People … were relieved that the smell is gone. It is really nice to have that part of the mill missing,” Laflamme said.

Fifty percent of Berlin’s township is national forest, 25 percent is the new park, and the other 25 percent is the city proper, the mayor added.

New federal prison, new state park

Four years ago, development in Berlin was virtually nonexistent. Now, with the addition of a new multimillion-dollar federal prison, which is expected to create 300 jobs when it opens in 2008, and the park, Danderson said he’s already dealing with two developers who want to begin projects along the new land.

Both Danderson and Laflamme said lodging is sorely needed, along with restaurants and ATV rental shops.

“The federal prison generated a lot of interest, but it was the Jericho Lake Park that really created tourism here,” Laflamme said.

Internet visitors from across the nation and into Canada have already overwhelmed the Androscoggin Valley ATV Club’s Web site, seeking information about the park and trails, Huot said.

“We’ve also been getting phone calls after phone calls on it. People absolutely love it. This is going to be huge!” Huot said.