Old Man of the Mountain

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For other uses, see Old Man of the Mountain (disambiguation).

A composite image of the Old Man of the Mountain created from images taken before and after the collapse.

The reverse of the state quarter of New Hampshire features the Old Man of the Mountain and its name, alongside the state motto 'Live Free or Die'.

The State Emblem contains the Old Man of the Mountain with the state motto 'Live Free or Die'.

The Old Man of the Mountain, also known as the great stone face, was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA that, when viewed from the correct angle, appeared to be the jagged profile of a face. The first recorded discovery of the Old Man was in 1805. The outcrop was 1,200 feet above Profile Lake, and measured 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide. It collapsed in 2003.

1 History
2 Symbolic profile
3 Collapse
- 3.1 Timeline of the Old Man
4 External links

[edit] History

U. S. stamp featuring The Old Man of the "Mountains," issued in 1955.

The formation was carved by glaciers approximately 10,000 years ago and was first discovered by a surveying team circa 1805. The official state history says several groups of surveyors were working in the Franconia Notch area at the time and claimed credit for the discovery.

Face-like stone formations are common around the world, including the famous Napoleon's Nose, in the hills north of Belfast. The Old Man was famous largely because of statesman Daniel Webster, a New Hampshire native, who once wrote: "Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

The writer Nathaniel Hawthorne also used the Old Man as inspiration for his short story called "The Great Stone Face," first published in 1850, in which he described the formation as "a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness."

[edit] Symbolic profile

The profile has been New Hampshire's state emblem since 1945. It was put on the state's license plate, state highway-route signs, and the back of New Hampshire's Statehood Quarter, which is popularly promoted as the only US coin with a profile on both sides. Before the collapse, it could be seen from special viewing areas along Interstate 93 in Franconia Notch State Park, approximately 80 miles north of Concord, New Hampshire.

[edit] Collapse

Defying attempts at preservation, including the use of cables and spikes for most of the 20th Century, the formation collapsed to the ground between midnight and 2 a.m., May 3, 2003. Centuries of wind, snow, and rain, as well as freezing and thawing cycles, finally caught up with the profile. Dismay over the collapse was so great that people left flowers at the base of the cliffs in tribute; some state legislators sought to change New Hampshire's state flag to include the profile; and many people suggested replacing the Old Man with a plastic replica - an idea that was quickly rejected by an official task force headed by former Governor Stephen Merrill. On the first anniversary of the collapse, the task force unveiled coin-operated viewfinders near the base of the cliff. Looking through them shows how the Old Man used to appear.

On February 7, 2007, plans were announced at the New Hampshire State Library for an Old Man of the Mountain memorial, to include five huge stones which, viewed from a raised platform, merge into a form that recreates the profile outline. It is being overseen by the Legacy Fund, a committee that succeeded the Old Man of the Mountain Revitalization Task Force. The Legacy Fund is a private 501c3 corporation with representatives from various state agencies and several private non-profits.[1]

[edit] Timeline of the Old Man

17th millennium BCE-6th millennium BCE - An ice sheet recedes from North America, substantially creating the mountains, rivers, lakes and ponds found on the continent.
8th millennium BCE - New England undergoes the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age. Glaciers cover New England and create the Old Man of the Mountain at Franconia Notch.
1604 - The American Indians had a legend that said if you follow the Great Merrimack River north you will find a mountain with a stone face.
1805 - Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, part of a Franconia surveying crew, are the first white settlers to record observing the Old Man, according to the official New Hampshire history.
1832 - Author Nathaniel Hawthorne visits the area and later publishes a short story called "The Great Stone Face".

Old Man of the Mountain on 26 April 2003, about six days prior to the collapse. A late spring snow occurred the night before.

1869 - President Ulysses S. Grant visits the formation.
1906 - Reverend Guy Roberts of Massachusetts is the first to publicize signs of deterioration of the formation.
1916 - New Hampshire Governor Rolland H. Spaulding begins a concerted state effort to preserve the formation.
1955 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower visits the profile as part of the Old Man's 150th "birthday" celebration. To celebrate the president's tour, Dartmouth College students drape over the Old Man's upper lip to create the image of a moustache. Eisenhower later proposed the Interstate Highway system; Interstate 93 was built to a substandard status, partly so it wouldn't destabilize the Old Man.
1965 - Niels Nielsen, a state highway worker, becomes unofficial guardian of the profile, in an effort to protect the formation from vandalism and the ravages of the weather.
1986 - Vandalizing the Old Man is classified as a crime under the state criminal mischief law. Under the law it is a misdemeanor for any person to vandalize, deface or destroy any part of the Old Man, with a penalty of a fine of between $1000 and $3000 and restitution to the state for any damage caused.
1987 - After years of effort, Nielsen is named the official caretaker of the Old Man by the state of New Hampshire.
1988 - A 12-mile stretch of Interstate 93 opens below Cannon Mountain. The $56 million project, which took 30 years to build, was a compromise between the government and environmentalists that sought to protect the surrounding landscape.
1991 - David Nielsen, son of Niels Nielsen, becomes the official caretaker of the Old Man.
2003 - The Old Man collapses.
2004 - Coin-operated viewfinders are installed to show how the Old Man looked before its collapse.
2007 - Design of an Old Man of the Mountain memorial announced at the New Hampshire State Library. It will feature large stone sculptures near the current viewfinders.