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Subscribe to LR Lately | View All PostsNew Hampshire's Lost Symbol Remade!
Posted On: 08/04/2015
I always hated sitting in the far right seat going north, or the far left going south on Interstate 93. Being in that seat meant the most uncomfortable neck positions trying to look up at the Old Man going through Franconia Notch. My mom would always point up at him to show us after my brother and I had spent many minutes imagining his face in every mountain we passed. He was the halfway mark for my family on our way up to Lancaster to visit my grandmother and Santa’s Village not far from there. Finding out that he had fallen from the mountains was a sad moment for the state. This great symbol of man in nature above the White Mountain National Forest attraction had been lost by the same means that made it! It was just another affirmation of the circle of life and nature.
The History of “The Man”
The first recorded mention of the Old Man of the Mountain came in 1805 by a Franconia resident whose words brought tourists and even Presidents to this historic site to see this unique nature-made sculpture so specific to New Hampshire. In 1945, we started seeing street signs, stamps, and other NH marketing developed around this prodigy rock formation. But on May 30, 2003, the Old Man fell off his stoop in the middle of the night and into the lake below. I remember seeing workers atop the mountain doing their best to conserve the monument from faltering. However, New England winters are strong!
The Old Man Monument
Luckily in 2010, a monument was built to commemorate the Old Man next to Profile Lake. Some smart builders created a mock interpretation of how the Old Man used to look. If you stand at the proper angle at the monument, you can see how the Old Man would have looked with these beams the state parks created. It’s a smart and less expensive way than sending workers up there to do “plastic surgery” on the man’s old face!
Twelve Years Later…
It’s hard to believe that it was 2003 when the Old Man collapsed. I can still remember those family car rides so well! Seeing the empty mountain now gives me a moment of my own personal and historical reflection, but I think that’s how the Old Man was always intended: to be a point of pride for New Hampshire citizens who should see themselves physically and metaphorically in the land where they originate.
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