Legend of Ruth Colbath is a NH legend based on New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway in Carroll County NH.
Living along what is now called the Kancamagus Scenic Byway (Kancamagus Highway) in New Hampshire were the Colbath’s. One night in 1891, Ruth Colbath’s husband Thomas left the family farm to run errands. Thomas Colbath never returned that night. For 39 years, Ruth Colbath waited for her beloved husband. She missed him so much that she kept an oil lamp burning in the window, hoping for his return.
Ruth Colbath died in 1930, at the age of 80. Three years after Ruth died, Thomas returned. Thomas offered no explanation for where he had been for the past 39 years. Thomas Colbath claimed he wandered away and was too embarrassed to return and admit he was lost.
It is now thought by some that Thomas Colbath may have suffered from what we now know as Alzheimers.
Today, the Russell-Colbath House is a registered historic site and owned by the US Forestry Service. It is open to the public, tours are given daily in season by volunteers.
