This completely blew me away when I heard it today. Sometime on Thursday or Friday, while clouds surrounded the "Old Man of the Mountain" rock formation in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, it fell. It consisted of a series of precarious ledges which, viewed only from a particular angle, formed the famous profile. The state of New Hampshire had spent decades trying to stave off the inevitable and protect its symbol by using steel cables and epoxy to prop up the ledges. No one suspected that it would go so soon.

I have spent many years hiking in the Franconia Notch area and the Whites overall, and have to admit that I had a soft spot for this hokey novelty icon. I'm glad that I had a chance to see it enough times that it's burned into my memory. It was always such an impressive sight, 1,200 feet above I-93, at the top of the sheer cliffs of Cannon Mountain, ruling over the whole valley. It's on the New Hampshire state quarter, too (and license plates, and road signs...)!

Don't know how long these pictures/links from the Boston Globe will exist, but here goes:

Before:

After:


Story

Another story

By the way, the flag in that picture is ENORMOUS; the profile is much bigger than the flag makes it seem.

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Borla, Moss intake, Magnecor

 

Wow, that sucks :evil:

 

Bummer. :evil:
Okay okay- just a thought- I know it was a naturally existing phenomena -now lost forever and eternity

 

An interesting sidenote (and another reason that this news story upsets me) is that the fall of the Old Man was prophesied by my favorite childhood author, John Bellairs, in his book "The Curse of the Blue Figurine" (he calls it "The Hag" in his book).

link

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Borla, Moss intake, Magnecor

 

Thanks for the article link again.
Fanconia looks like a great place to motor in a mini.
I think I can make out "the Hag" more easily than
the Old man of the mountain.

How hard would it be for anyone to predict the fall of a
collection of unstable propped up rocks on the side of a
mountain.? Even the epoxy and cables could work for only so long.
Did he accurately predict details of the event?

 

Bummer. Now they'll have to find a new graphic for their license plates... (for non-New Englanders, the old man rock image was on the plates along with the infamous "Live Free or Die" slogan)

Minihune, there IS a MINI meet at Mt. Washington, NH next month. See the New England forum. Franconia notch would be visible along the way, and Mt. Washington is a one-of-a-kind experience. Unfortunately no Old Man of the Mountain rock formation to look at any more.

BTW, I'm glad the news story didn't report that that enormous flag had anything to do with the collapse. That would have been too ironic.

 

I remember visiting there as a kid...bummer...you can't stop mother nature.

 

>>BTW, I'm glad the news story didn't report that that enormous flag had anything to do with the collapse. That would have been too ironic.<<

You know, I thought about that. Given the size and weight of that flag, and the insane winds that it was probably subjected to, it probably didn't HELP the situation... Ultimately, though, it was doomed anyway.

>>How hard would it be for anyone to predict the fall of a
collection of unstable propped up rocks on the side of a
mountain.? Even the epoxy and cables could work for only so long.
Did he accurately predict details of the event? <<

No, actually, in the book, the collapse is as a result of a sort of supernatural event that occurs (because that's the kind of author that John Bellairs was). It always came to mind when I saw the Old Man, though...

 

>>Bummer. Now they'll have to find a new graphic for their license plates... (for non-New Englanders, the old man rock image was on the plates along with the infamous "Live Free or Die" slogan)
>>
>>

Plus its on the new NH quarter

 

Thanks for the story, Chris! That's too bad. I never got to see it in person.

 

Bummer

 

>>Plus its on the new NH quarter

Yep, they're getting some degree of guff 'round these parts for choosing a precariously balanced pile of rocks as their state symbol. It's on just about everything...official state stationary, state seal, etc. Biggest panic that NH has experienced in a couple of hundred years.

 

 

well, the dude was old and over the hill long ago. . . . .

RIP Old Man!

 

That's a shame, unfortunately I never got the chance to see it. I was hoping to see it once I move up to Vermont this coming september but I guess not.

As a rock climbing I cringe when I hear about rock falls in general but this is an added shame.