Old Man of the Mountain
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The Old Man of the Mountain, also called the Great Stone Face and the Profile, was a series of five
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in
Franconia, New Hampshire Franconia is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,083 at the 2020 census. Set in the White Mountains, Franconia is home to the northern half of Franconia Notch State Park. Parts of the White Mountain Nation ...
, United States, that appeared to be the jagged profile of a human face when viewed from the north. The
rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...
, above
Profile Lake Profile Lake is a water body located in Franconia Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, at the foot of Cannon Mountain.Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
and is a symbol within their culture. It is also a symbol to the
Mohawk people The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...
. The first written mention of the Old Man was in 1805. It became a landmark and a
cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic ...
for the state of New Hampshire. It collapsed on May 3, 2003.New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation: Old Man of the Mountain Historic Site
Accessed: 14 August 2012.
After its collapse, residents considered replacing it with a replica, but the idea was ultimately rejected. It remains a visual icon on the state's license plates and in other places.


History

Franconia Notch Franconia Notch (elev. ) is a major mountain pass through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Dominated by Cannon Mountain to the west and Mount Lafayette to the east, it lies principally within Franconia Notch State Park and is traversed by ...
is a
U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
in the White Mountains that was shaped by
glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s. The Old Man formation was likely formed from freezing and thawing of water in cracks of the granite bedrock sometime after the retreat of glaciers 12,000 years ago. The formation was first noted in the records of a Franconia surveying team around 1805. Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, part of the surveying team, were the first two to record observing the Old Man. 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.


Indigenous legends

According to Abenaki legend, a human named Nis Kizos was born during an
eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
. He became a good leader and provider for his community. Nis Kizos was successful enough to attend Kchi Mahadan, a great gathering of other communities to trade. Tarlo, a beautiful
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
woman, returned with him. They fell in love. Tarlo had to return to her birth village because its people had been struck by a sickness. Nis Kizos promised he would live at the top of the mountain. By day he would look out for her, and at night he would light a fire to guide her back. With winter fast approaching, the elders sent Nis Kizos's brother Gezosa to bring him back. He was unsuccessful because Nis Kizo maintained his promise. Tarlo died in her birth village of sickness. After the winter Gezosa went back up the mountain to bring the news of Tarlo and retrieve Nis Kizos. He found no signs of the existence of Nis Kizos and was stricken with sadness. On his way back down the mountain he looked back and found Nis Kizos had become part of the mountain as a stone face to look after the land. A modern addition to the Abenaki legend is that when Stone Face fell in 2003, he finally was re-united with Tarlo. The Great Circle was rejoined. Denise Ortakales published a children's book in 2005 called ''The Legend of the Old Man of the Mountain'', which relates the
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
legend of the stone face. In the tale, Chief Pemigewassat loved a maiden named Minerwa of the Mohawk people, which brought peace between their tribes for a long time. When Minerwa went back home to visit her dying father, Chief Pemigewassat promised he would stay and wait for her to return. However, the Great Spirit claimed him during the winter, and his people buried him facing towards Minerwa to watch for her return. His face was immortalized in the stone as the stone face, forever waiting and watching.


Post-colonial history

The Old Man became famous across the United States largely because of statesman
Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...
, a
New Hampshire native A New Hampshire native is a status recognized by the U.S. state of New Hampshire which identifies people who were born in the state. The word native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, ...
, who once wrote: "Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers 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 Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
used the Old Man as inspiration for his
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
"
The Great Stone Face The Great Stone Face is: * a nickname of Buster Keaton * a nickname of Keanu Reeves * a nickname of Ed Sullivan * a nickname for the Old Man of the Mountain, a New Hampshire rock formation that collapsed in 2003 * a short story by Nathaniel Hawth ...
", published in 1850, in which he described the formation as "a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness". The profile has been New Hampshire's state emblem since 1945. It was put on the state's
license plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate ( Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificati ...
, state route signs, and on 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 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
in
Franconia Notch State Park Franconia Notch State Park is a public recreation area and nature preserve that straddles of Interstate 93 as it passes through Franconia Notch, a mountain pass between the Kinsman Range and Franconia Range in the White Mountains of northe ...
, approximately north of the state's capital,
Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
.


Collapse

Freezing and thawing opened fissures in the Old Man's "forehead". By the 1920s, the crack was wide enough to be mended with chains, and in 1957 the state legislature passed a $25,000 appropriation for a more elaborate weatherproofing, using 20 tons of fast-drying cement, plastic covering and steel rods and
turnbuckle A turnbuckle, stretching screw or bottlescrew is a device for adjusting the tension or length of ropes, cables, tie rods, and other tensioning systems. It normally consists of two threaded eye bolts, one screwed into each end of a small metal f ...
s, plus a concrete gutter to divert runoff from above. A team from the state highway and park divisions maintained the patchwork each summer. Nevertheless, the formation collapsed to the ground between midnight and 2 a.m., May 3, 2003. Dismay over the collapse was so great that people visited to pay tribute, with some leaving flowers.


After the collapse

Early after the collapse, many New Hampshire residents considered replacement with a replica. That idea was rejected by an official task force in 2003 headed by former Governor
Steve Merrill Stephen Everett Merrill (June 21, 1946 – September 5, 2020) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Manchester, New Hampshire. He served as the 77th governor of New Hampshire from 1993 to 1997. Early life Merrill was born in Nor ...
. In 2004, the state legislature considered, but did not accept, a proposal to change New Hampshire's
state flag In vexillology, a state flag is either the flag of the government of a sovereign state, or the flag of an individual federated state (subnational administrative division). Government flag A state flag is a variant of a national flag (or occas ...
to include the profile. On the first anniversary of the collapse in May 2004, the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund (OMMLF) began operating
coin-op A currency detector or currency validator is a device that determines whether notes or coins are genuine or counterfeit. These devices are used in a wide range of automated machines, such as retail kiosks, supermarket self checkout machines, a ...
erated
viewfinder In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and, in many cases, to focus the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main ...
s near the base of the cliff. When looking through them up at the cliff of Cannon Mountain one can see a "before" and "after" of how the Old Man of the Mountain used to appear. Seven years after the collapse, on June 24, 2010, the OMMLF, now the Friends of the Old Man of the Mountain, broke ground for the first phase of the state-sanctioned "Old Man of the Mountain Memorial" on a walkway along
Profile Lake Profile Lake is a water body located in Franconia Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, at the foot of Cannon Mountain.501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
corporation with representatives from various state agencies and several private nonprofits. In 2013, the board called a halt to further fundraising. They announced their intention to spend what was left on minor improvements and dissolve the board. The memorial was completed in September 2020. Other proposals that were considered but rejected include: * Architect Francis Treves envisioned a walk-in profile made of 250 panels of structural glass attached to tubular steel framework and concrete tower, connected by a tram, rim trail or tunnel through to the cliff wall at the original site. It won an
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
Un-Built Project Award. * In 2009, Ken N. Gidge, a state representative from Nashua, proposed building a copper replica of the Old Man on level ground above the ledge at the original site where hiking trails already lead.


Timeline of the Old Man

Details of the history of the Old Man of the Mountain include: * 17th millennium BC
6th millennium BC The 6th millennium BC spanned the years 6000 BC to 5001 BC (c. 8 ka to c. 7 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological an ...
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
underwent the
Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cor ...
, the most recent
ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
.
Glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s covering New England and post-glacial erosion created the cliff which would subsequently erode into the Old Man of the Mountain at Franconia Notch. * 1805 — Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, part of a
Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...
surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...
crew, were the first white settlers to record observing the Old Man, according to the official New Hampshire history. * Early 1800s — American statesman
Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...
brought national attention to the profile in his writings. * 1832 — Author
Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
visited the area. * 1850 — Hawthorne published "
The Great Stone Face The Great Stone Face is: * a nickname of Buster Keaton * a nickname of Keanu Reeves * a nickname of Ed Sullivan * a nickname for the Old Man of the Mountain, a New Hampshire rock formation that collapsed in 2003 * a short story by Nathaniel Hawth ...
", a short story inspired by his visit. The story's title became an alternative name for the formation. * 1869 —
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
visited the formation. * 1906 — The
Reverend The Reverend is an style (manner of address), honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and Minister of religion, ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and c ...
Guy Roberts of New Hampshire was the first to publicize signs of deterioration of the formation. * 1916 —
New Hampshire Governor The governor of New Hampshire is the head of government of New Hampshire. The governor is elected during the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along with bordering Verm ...
Rolland H. Spaulding began a concerted state effort to preserve the formation. * 1926 — The formation appeared on all New Hampshire passenger, dealer, replacement, and sample license plates for this year. * 1945 — The Old Man was made the New Hampshire State Emblem. * 1955 — President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
visited the profile as part of the Old Man's 150th "birthday" celebration. * 1958 — Major repair work to the Old Man's forehead was undertaken as a result of a legislative appropriation the previous year. * 1965 — Niels Nielsen, a state highway worker, became the unofficial guardian of the profile, in an effort to protect the formation from vandalism and the ravages of the weather. * 1974 — From 1974 to 1979, each license plate validation sticker had a likeness of the formation. * 1976 — For the
United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event ...
the formation was once again available on the state's license plate, but it cost an extra $5 and it could only be used as a front plate. * 1986 —
Vandalizing Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...
the Old Man was classified as a crime under the state
criminal mischief Mischief or malicious mischief is the name for a criminal offenses that is defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a legal differenti ...
law. Under the law (RSA 634:2 VI) it is a
misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...
for any person to vandalize, deface or destroy any part of the Old Man, with a penalty of a
fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...
of between $1,000 and $3,000 and
restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court o ...
to the state for any damage caused. * 1987 — Nielsen was named the official
caretaker Caretaker may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Caretaker'' (film), a 1963 adaptation of the play ''The Caretaker'' * '' The Caretakers'', a 1963 American film set in a mental hospital * Caretaker, a character in the 1974 film '' ...
of the Old Man by the state of New Hampshire. Beginning that year all passenger car license plates had a small image of the formation at the top. This practice continued through 1999. The license plates distributed after 1999 were redesigned to feature the Old Man of the Mountain much more prominently. * 1988 — A stretch of
Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...
(which also runs jointly with
U.S. Route 3 U.S. Route 3 (US 3) is a United States highway running from Cambridge, Massachusetts, through New Hampshire, to the Canada–US border near Third Connecticut Lake, where it connects to Quebec Route 257. Massachusetts Route 3 connects to ...
through the notch) opened below Cannon Mountain. The $56 million project, which took 30 years to build, was a compromise between the desire for a four-lane interstate and those who sought to limit the impact on the notch. * 1991 — David Nielsen, son of Niels Nielsen, became the official caretaker of the Old Man. * 2000 — The Old Man was featured on the state quarter of New Hampshire and became the graphic background on passenger car license plates. * 2003 — The Old Man collapsed. * 2004 — Coin-operated viewfinders were installed to show how the Old Man looked before its collapse. * 2007 — Design of an Old Man of the Mountain memorial announced. * 2010 — First phase of the state-sanctioned "Old Man of the Mountain Memorial" was unveiled. * 2011 — Profiler Plaza was dedicated on June 12. * 2020 - Memorial completed in September.AP: "Old Man memorial hopes for more volunteers" 14 September 2020
/ref>


See also

*
List of rock formations that resemble human beings A list of rock formations worldwide that resemble human beings. Canada * Sleeping Giant, Thunder Bay, Ontario United Kingdom * The Old Man of Hoy in Orkney is a rock pillar that from certain angles is said to resemble a standing man. * Q ...
*
Mount Pemigewasset Mount Pemigewasset, or Indian Head, is a mountain in Franconia Notch in the White Mountains in Grafton County, New Hampshire. It lies near the town of Lincoln. The mountain is known for the distinctive cliff along the southern side of its summit ...
, another New Hampshire rock formation *
Pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples are perceived images of animals, ...
*
Cydonia Cydonia may refer to: Music * ''Cydonia'' (album), a 2001 album by The Orb * "Cydonia", a track by heavy metal band Crimson Glory from '' Astronomica'' Places and jurisdictions * Kydonia or Cydonia, an ancient city state on Crete, at modern ...
, location of the "Face on Mars" * Old Man of the Lake


References


Further reading

*


External links


The Day the Old Man Fell
via
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund

NH State Parks — An end is just a new beginning

19th-century paintings of the Old Man of the Mountain


{{Authority control Landmarks in New Hampshire Rock formations of New Hampshire White Mountains (New Hampshire) Landforms of Grafton County, New Hampshire History of New Hampshire Tourist attractions in Grafton County, New Hampshire Destroyed rock formations