Until about a year ago I worked with some people from New Hampshire, and I used to ask them what the big deal was with The Old Man of the Mountain. It’s on a mountainside in northern NH; a big piece of rock that juts out from a cliff and looks like the face of an old man. That’s kinda cool, I guess, but it’s everywhere! It’s on the license plates. The state highway signs are shaped like the profile. When New Hampshire got to pick a design for their state quarter, the one enduring symbol of their state that they would share with the nation, they picked The Old Man of the Mountain.
I used to ask my cow-orkers about this. “Isn’t there anything else you can think of to brag about?” I asked. I never got a proper answer to that. They just looked at me like a face-shaped rock was the most incredible thing in the known universe.
I’ve been there; a couple times, in fact. It’s very nice. That’s why I could never figure out why the state always chose just that one thing whenever they had a chance to show off.
Well you just remove everything that doesn’t look like the Old Man and what’s left will look like it.
It is doable. After all we’ve carved up a few mountain sides before. But of course it wont be natural, which in my mind would have been the draw in the first place.
While I’m sad that a state symbol, and a unique natural rock formation is destroyed, this picture of the “new” man of the mountain looks kind of like Gene Simmons (note the long tongue and blood dripping down his chin).
“What’s the big deal?” asked our 5 year old daughter, MilliCal, “It’s only a mountain.” She thinks th new utline looks kinda like a lion.
Well, the face is only on every Nw Hampshire License Plate, and on the State Route signs, an on the NH quarter. Its th subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story The Great Stone Face. (I think there’s a line in there about how the Face is made of granite and will last forever. Not a good omen.)
It’s not just a piece of rock that looks like a face – if you’ve ever seen it, you’re struck by the way it projects in an unusual way from the top of the mountain, and is so very clearly visible from the Road (which follows the river valley, naturally). It’s an extraordinary chance of nature to make a large and clearly visible Face occur in just such a wel-travelled spot. It’s no wonder it was adopted as a state symbol.
And, of course they’ve been keeping it up through the years. I recall seeing a report on CBS’ Sunday <Morning show about how it was being held up by cables secured into bolts screwed into the rocks, which were checked regularly. Apparently they’ve been gluing it together, too, because the news reports talked about epoxy. Maybe they should’ve used cement. In the heavy rains, the underpinning rock apparently washed away, taking the Face with it.
What will they do? I doubt if hey’ll try to carve a new Face – th rock is pretty fragmented. Besides, you’ll never be able to duplicate the way the original one jutted into prominence at the top.
y guess is that they’ll build a shell to place over the rocks – fiberglas, maybe. Something to “rebuild” the classic outline as a way to restore the image for tourists and for the state’s self-esteem. Heck, why not?
“What’s the big deal?” asked our 5 year old daughter, MilliCal, “It’s only a mountain.” She thinks th new utline looks kinda like a lion.
Well, the face is only on every Nw Hampshire License Plate, and on the State Route signs, an on the NH quarter. Its th subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story The Great Stone Face. (I think there’s a line in there about how the Face is made of granite and will last forever. Not a good omen.)
It’s not just a piece of rock that looks like a face – if you’ve ever seen it, you’re struck by the way it projects in an unusual way from the top of the mountain, and is so very clearly visible from the Road (which follows the river valley, naturally). It’s an extraordinary chance of nature to make a large and clearly visible Face occur in just such a wel-travelled spot. It’s no wonder it was adopted as a state symbol.
And, of course they’ve been keeping it up through the years. I recall seeing a report on CBS’ Sunday <Morning show about how it was being held up by cables secured into bolts screwed into the rocks, which were checked regularly. Apparently they’ve been gluing it together, too, because the news reports talked about epoxy. Maybe they should’ve used cement. In the heavy rains, the underpinning rock apparently washed away, taking the Face with it.
What will they do? I doubt if hey’ll try to carve a new Face – th rock is pretty fragmented. Besides, you’ll never be able to duplicate the way the original one jutted into prominence at the top.
y guess is that they’ll build a shell to place over the rocks – fiberglas, maybe. Something to “rebuild” the classic outline as a way to restore the image for tourists and for the state’s self-esteem. Heck, why not?
It’s a New Hampshire thing. You guys wouldn’t understand.
And we do so got something to be proud of. Daniel Webster, for example. Scenes like this on the Kancamagus Highway. Lotsa stuff. Who wouldn’t be upset that a pretty cool natural phenomenon in their state, which people had worked for the better part of a century to keep together, fell off with no warning whatsoever?
