As kayakers test a recently constructed wave feature on New England’s first whitewater park in Franklin, N.H., the Winnipesaukee River at Mill City Park is spurring development in the previously economically depressed town even as the project's second phase is still being financed.
“We’ve had people using the [wave] feature every day since April,” says, entrepreneur, engineer, and Mill City Park founder Marty Parichand, who also owns Outdoor New England, a business that sells whitewater kayaking gear.