Weird New Hampshire Laws You’ve Never Heard of Before

There are weird laws everywhere but some of these really take the cake, if you will. Like this first law, for instance.

You may not nod your head, tap your foot, or otherwise move your body to keep time with the music in any tavern, restaurant, or café.



If you’re a hunter and you own a ferret, you cannot take the ferret out to help you hunt. Apparently this was a concern for local legislatures, hence the law. Weird, bur really which one of these laws aren’t weird?

If you’re at White Mountain National Forest, and you see trash on the ground, don’t pick it up. And no, I’m not kidding. Don’t rake the beaches, pick up litter, haul trash away, or make any other changes there without a permit. “Maintaining the national forest without a permit,” comes with a $150 fine. Why they wouldn’t want obviously trash and debris picked up at all is beyond me but, now you know.

You are not allowed to sell the clothes that you are wearing to pay a gambling debt. You know that saying about the shirt off your back? Well, New Hampshire has put the kibosh on that.

It is considered offensive to check into a hotel under a fake or assumed name, and in this state, illegal.

Don’t plan on getting a lot of work done on Sundays. Or having any fun? According to the law, there is to be no work and no play on Sundays, as that day is for the Lord. The law states, “No person shall do any work, business, or labor of his secular calling, to the disturbance of others, on the first day of the week, commonly called the Lord’s Day, except works of necessity and mercy, and the making of necessary repairs upon mills and factories which could not be made otherwise without loss to operatives; and no person shall engage in any play, game, or sport on that day.”

Another day specific law says that on Sundays, citizens may not relieve themselves while looking up. That is, if you have to go to the bathroom, then by all means, do so. But, look straight ahead or down, you know at your phone, which you’re 99% most likely already looking at anyhow.

It is illegal to pick up seaweed off the beach, at night. Some people call this the dumbest law in New Hampshire. Why? Well, he law stipulates that you cannot pick up the seaweed at night, so that means during the day, it’s fine. Apparently, the law was originally enacted in 1973 because “a few people were pulling living rockweed and eelgrass off the beach and stone, and there were enforceability issues at night.”

Any cattle that crosses into the state lines must be fitted with a device to gather its feces.

Did you ever reuse your milk containers to fill with something else? Me either, but apparently in this state, you can’t. That’s right, New Hampshire law states that “No milk and milk product container shall be used as a receptacle for any substance other than dairy products.”

No getting high from the exhaust pipes, yup, that’s a weird law, too. Exhaust pipes are not mentioned specifically, but it easily falls under the definition of “toxic vapors, for the purpose of causing a condition of intoxication, euphoria, excitement, exhilaration, stupefaction, or dulled senses of the nervous system.”

In this state, adults and kids cannot play Bingo together at private campgrounds or hotels. So if you’re on a little vaca, and it’s raining, you better table the games. Weird, right? Representative James Webb proposed a change that would allow play together but forbid the chance to win anything, such as prizes.

If you want to put on a show, you need permission from the selectmen. The law states that “No showman, tumbler, rope dancer, ventriloquist or other person shall, for pay, exhibit any feats of agility, horsemanship, sleight of hand, rope dancing or feats with cards, or any animals, wax figures, puppets or other show, or promote any public competition, without a license from the selectmen of the town.”

Not sure which of these laws is more weird, what do you think? Actually, scratch that. The park that fines you for literally picking up garbage is absolutely the weirdest law imaginable.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.