Anderson Pond is typical of a small pond in the foothills of the White Mountains, one of the premier draws to the region.
The pretty little remote pond is home to an abundance of wildlife including Eastern Box Turtles and Snapping Turtles who climb out of the water each summer and wander up to residents’ driveways to lay eggs.
Spring brings a plethora of frog song from spring peepers, bullfrogs, green frogs, leopard frogs and American toads.
Fishers, fox, Great Blue Herons, song birds, occasional deer and moose, black bears and a variety of migrating ducks frequent the area.
There is a hiking trail around the pond that connects to the Butternut Trail, while private homes circle the pond but discretely remain mostly camouflaged behind trees.
Fish are abundant mostly from the lack of fisherman with access to the pond. You’ll see the infrequent resident tossing in a line or a visiting grandchild or even roofer on a lunch break but lack of access to boats keeps most would-be anglers away.
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction
– Wikipedia
The pond was created eons ago by the slow grinding action of the Ice Age.
In modern times, Anderson Pond in Grantham, NH lays within the community of Eastman conceived in the mid-1960s and developed out to today’s collection of 900 houses and 300 condos. The community of retirees, working family’s, second homeowners and renters is anchored by a golf course and the larger Eastman Pond.
There is an activities center, cross-country ski trail system, boat rentals, swimming beaches (on Eastman Pond), hiking trails and a restaurant at the golf/ski center.
Anderson Pond remains mostly undiscovered although it receives daily foot traffic from hikers, dog walkers and kids on adventure hunts.
The pond typically sees only one kayak or canoe at a time. Swimming is not recommended as the shallow, Lilly pad water warms up too much in the summer and there are rumors’ of leaches plus those snapping turtles.
If you intend to fish it might be worthwhile dragging a canoe down from one the two access points but if you were looking for a long kayak trip, this wouldn’t be the place unless you enjoy doing laps.
The hiking trail is about one mile long is mainly through the backyards of the residents who live on the pond but it does connect up with the unpopulated and wider Butternut Trail that leads to the undeveloped Butternut Pond.
How did Anderson Pond in Eastman, Grantham, New Hampshire get it’s name?
Lorenzo Dunbar’s History of Grantham, published in 1791, says that “about the year 1791 two men by the name of Anderson were drowned in Anderson Pond – so called after this occurrence.” One might reasonably surmise that they fell through the ice.