Home » Travel » New Hampshire » The Old Man of the Mountain

The Old Man of the Mountain

© Christina Coruth

"The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance."

It's clear to me that Nathaniel Hawthorne, who visited New Hampshire often, was inspired by the Old Man of the Mountain when he wrote his story, The Great Stone Face, about a man who spends his life looking for a man of honor, dignity, and kindness, which the Great Stone Face represented. The Old Man, also known as the Profile, is thought to have been the object of reverence by Native Americans, although no proof has been found to support that theory. It's not hard to imagine that they would have felt that way. It seems that Hawthorne would agree.

The Old Man has beckoned to people from all over the World to visit him from the time he was first spotted by men working on the carriage road from Woodstock to Franconia in 1805. He rests majestically on the western side of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Improvements in the roads and the building of railroads into the White Mountains brought tourists to the area. By the 1840's the word of the Old Man had spread. Today he brings thousands of tourists into the state.

His granite profile is instantly recognized as a symbol of New Hampshire -- the Granite State. The Old Man's story began about two hundred million years ago when an ice sheet caused the granite to fracture due to the heaving action of freezing and thawing. Huge blocks of the granite broke away and fell off the sheer precipice approximately 1200 feet above Profile Lake. Completion of the sculpting of the Old Man's face is believed to have occurred 2,000 to 10,000 years ago. His face is 25 feet wide and 40 feet long. He is made of five granite ledges which accounts for the fact that his profile is visible only from particular vantage points on the highway and at Profile Lake.

Sometime during the 1880s the Appalachian Mountain Club reported that his forehead was slipping. According to experts of the day, repairing the forehead to prevent it from slipping further was impossible. Measurements and photographs were taken in 1906 by Reverend Guy Roberts, who climbed the face to make a record. He returned in 1915 with a Quincy, MA quarryman named EH Geddes. Ten months later, the pair returned to find that the stone had moved 1 1/4 inches. Geddes made the trek again in September of 1916 carrying a fifty pound pack containing tools and supplies needed to secure the ledge. He accomplished his task in 8 days. In 1927 and 1937 other supports were installed. Periodic inspections are a regular part of the Old Man's upkeep.

The copyright of the article The Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire is owned by . Permission to republish The Old Man of the Mountain in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.