Old Man of the Mountain

The Old Man of the Mountain ( "The Old Man of the Mountain ") was a typical rock formation in the mountains of the American state of New Hampshire. It was destroyed on 3 May 2003 by a natural rock slide.

The lineup consisted of five overhanging granite rocks, which from a certain point near the Lake profiles -is clearly recognizable to an old man's profile fitted together. The "face " was discovered in 1805 by the surveyors Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks. Became famous for the "old man " by a saying of the orator and politician Daniel Webster:

Nathaniel Hawthorne put the old man in the center of his short story The Great Stone Face ( 1850) and described him in it as a " work of nature in a mood of majestic playfulness "

Already in the 19th century, the rock face developed into a tourist magnet. It was also visited by several American presidents, so in 1869 by Ulysses S. Grant in 1955 for the 150th "Birthday " of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1945, the "old man " was officially elevated to the federal symbol of New Hampshire. It appeared in 1955 as a motif on a postage stamp in a series of American Post, on which the American states were presented with their landmark and mottoes, in 2000, then to the State Quarter New Hampshire.

Despite decades of conservation measures, the rock formation was destroyed as a result of natural erosion processes on 3 May 2003 by a rockslide.

In June 2011, seven iron sculptures were on the near Old Man Profiler Plaza mounted on granite blocks bearing the likeness of the broken rock original. Depending on your own body size and the selected position on the Plaza can be one again visually " fit " the iron profile of the Old to the mountainside. The square itself was covered with granite slabs on which the names of the Plaza - donors are carved.

References and Notes

44.1606203 - 71.6834169Koordinaten: 44 ° 9 ' 38 "N, 71 ° 41 ' 0 " W

• Rock
• Geography (New Hampshire)
• Grafton County