The notch first appears in recorded history in 1784, when an expedition led by Jeremy Belknap camped in the notch before ascending to the summit of Mount Washington through Huntington Ravine. Pinkham Notch was far more isolated than neighboring Crawford Notch; as a result, the first settler of Pinkham Notch came in 1827, 43 years after habitation of Crawford Notch. The first settler, Hayes Copp, built a homestead in the then-uninhabited area, near where the Dolly Copp campground stands today. Copp and his wife lived alone in the wilderness until Daniel Pinkham completed the first road through the notch between in 1836, finally providing a link between the Copp homestead and civilization. In 1851, a railroad was built to Gorham, and a hotel, the Glen House, was constructed to accommodate passengers. Mount Washington was the main attraction in the area; a bridle path was constructed from the Glen House to hotels on the summit, which was later improved into what would become the Mount Washington Auto Road. Completion of the road in 1861 led to a massive increase in tourism.