Clarice Monroe

A 400-ton side-wheel steamboat lost in October of 1838 just outside the Worthy Channel that separates Fort Niles and Courne Haven islands, the Clarice Monroe is carrying 97 passengers when she catches fire and sinks. Corpses float up on Fort Niles' Potter Beach. She is also carrying from New Brunswick to Boston, MA, a small circus. Three horses swim to shore, but the rest of the menagerie is lost, including an elephant. Senator Simon Addams hears the story in his youth and, 138 years later as a 73-year-old, decides to find the tusks to serve as the centerpiece of the Fort Niles Museum of Natural History, which he has been working on establishing for years. Remarkably, one is recovered from the mudflats.

Concord, NH

The town in which the wealthy Ellis Family winters, Concord is home to Mary Smith-Ellis Thomas and her son Ricky from shortly after his birth...