~Old-Man-in-the-Mountain~ NH Landmark

Mt. Washington-White Mountains, NH

I love New Hampshire! I especially love the White Mountains...in fact so much that a couple of times a month I google real estate in Jackson, NH and North Conway, just for fun. I would love to live in the mountains someday! I used to want to live on the ocean, actually oceanfront...my husband said "that was not gonna happen", -money wise. So realizing I would never be oceanfront, somehow I fell in love with mountains...big mountains. I think it is the awesome-ness, (is that a word?) and the beauty of the mountains. Actually I realize now that it was this same awesome beauty of the ocean that drew me to it.

Anyway, I was just googling NH real estate again and I came across info on "The Old Man of the Mountain", Franconia Notch State Park, NH.

White Mountain Area, NH



"Old Man in the Mountain", NH

Most people from New England reading this post will know all about "The Old Man in the Mountain", but for those that don't here is the story:

The "Old Man" is a natural "profile" in rock on the western rock wall of the mountain notch naturally formed by ledges of granite. The Old Man's face was about 40 feet tall; it was on a cliff 1,000 feet above the valley floor. There is a viewing area off the highway where you could see,( across "Mirror Lake"), the perfect profile of the "Old Man". Millions of visitors would stop here and for decades the Old Man was an official symbol of New Hampshire. The state spent money preserving the face from crumbling due to wind, rain, and ice.

Unfortunately, on May 3, 2003 the Old Man Rock-face tumbled down the cliff. Bitter winters and harsh weather caused water to penetrate the crevices. The water would constantly freeze and expand loosening the rock crevices, despite the constant care from NH state work crews.

Before 2003

Now there are plaques at the viewing area telling of "The Old Man in the Mountain's History".

The Old Man was created over 10,000 years ago by the last geologic ice age.

The Old Man was appreciated by Native American Indians for centuries. Then surveyors described the rock formation in 1805. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of "The Old Man" in 'The Great Stone Face'. NH has used this symbol on road markers, brochures, tourist info and even official documents. It became the NH state seal, it appeared on the New Hampshire quarter, and countless commemoratives over the years.

"The Old Man" is very much missed but he will not be forgotten!

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