Sunapee
Sunapee, in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, had a year-round population of 3,342 at the 2020 census and includes the village of Georges Mills. In 1768, the town—in an area that had been known informally as Corey’s Town--was granted as a proprietary and named Saville by Royal Governor John Wentworth under King George III. Following the American Revolution, it was incorporated as the town of Wendell in 1781 in the new state of New Hampshire. In 1850, its name was changed to Sunapee, matching the mountain that dominates the region. “Sunapee” is derived from the Algonquian “Soo Nipi,” meaning goose waters.
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Originally a farming community, Sunapee later became an industrial hub using water power along the Sugar River and a tourist destination served by train and steamboat transportation that arrived in the 1870s and grand hotels that followed.
Today, Lake Sunapee still features three working lighthouses that are maintained by the Lake Sunapee Protective Association. The town covers 25.2 square miles, with the Sugar River draining Lake Sunapee and the highest point reaching about 1,600 feet above sea level.
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