The 40-foot-tall natural rock formation was suspended 1,200 feet above Franconia Notch, held in place by turnbuckles and rods to fight erosion. It collapsed, and the rubble was discovered on the morning of May 3, 2003.
Two decades after New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain crumbled to pieces, the state is paying tribute to the granite profile that symbolizes its independence with new geological research, poetry, a song, and a scavenger hunt.
, with shared stories, poetry, and a new song. His departure was a stunning and shocking event, Fowler said.Sign up for NECN newsletters. “The Old Man of the Mountain may have weighed nearly 2,000 tons when it collapsed,” said Maclay, who plans to speak about his research Wednesday. “While 3-inch turnbuckles had been bolted into the Old Man to try and prevent it from falling, the actual strength of the granite was degraded over centuries, and that’s probably why it collapsed.”
Efforts to save the Old Man and 6,000-acre Franconia Notch began in the 1920s, when the land was for sale. The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests began a successful fundraising campaign to save the notch, “selling” its trees in exchange for a certificate of purchase for every tree protected. Further concern about the Old Man's future was expressed beginning in the late 1950s, when the state recommended extending Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch.
Fundraising began for a memorial soon after the Old Man tumbled. Today, visitors to Franconia Notch State Park can “see” the Old Man's profile through a series of steel rods driven into a granite base that hang over a lake and point toward the cliff. Each has a series of irregular shapes on the side. When visitors position themselves correctly with the shapes, they can view an outline of the profile of a face.
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