Cat Mascot at Northeast’s Highest Peak Dies After 12 Years on Duty

Marty the cat walks on a boulder outside the Mount Washington Observatory in North Conway, N.H. on June 28, 2020. The black Maine coon cat, who has patrolled the Northeast's highest peak for a dozen years as its weather observatory's mascot, has died. Ryan Knapp/Mount Washington Observatory via AP

NORTH CONWAY, New Hampshire—A cat that patrolled the highest peak in the northeast United States for a dozen years as its weather observatory’s mascot has died.

Marty, a black Maine coon cat, succumbed to “an unforeseen illness,” Mount Washington Summit Operations Manager Rebecca Scholand said in a news release on Nov. 9.

“As a past observer who lived on the summit for four years, I can tell you Marty was a special companion, entertainer and so incredibly loved by observers and state park staff and will be sadly missed,” she wrote.

The Mount Washington Observatory staff have had a cat at the 6,288-foot (1,915-meter) summit, called the “home of the world’s worst weather,” since 1932. The observatory had recently shared the news that Marty would retire from the mountain early in 2021.

View of Mount Washington in New Hampshire from the summit of Bretton woods ski area in early winter. FashionStock.com/Shutterstock

“The summit feline tradition will continue,” the news release said.

Marty, a shelter cat, won 53 percent of the Mount Washington Mascot Primary in January 2008, the same time that Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain won their respective races in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.