Post by Administrator on May 4, 2003 10:07:48 GMT -5
The Old Man is gone.
The loss of the Old Man of the Mountain will be borne by living and still unborn Granite Staters and people around the world for years to come. The venerable granite symbol of New Hampshire slid unseen down a mountain and into the past sometime Friday or early Saturday morning.
A state park trails crew reported around 7:30 Saturday morning the 40-foot tall stony face was gone from the side of Profile Mountain in Franconia Notch. The Old Man was covered by clouds Thursday and Friday, so no one knows when it actually fell.
The image that only nature could have crafted became a symbol of the state as countless people viewed the remarkable monument. The Old Man became a rite of passage for New Hampshire residents and a tourist attraction that become synonymous with the state and its slogan, "Live Free or Die." The profile was about 1,200 feet above Interstate 93, about 65 miles north of Concord.
The cause is believed to be a result of freezing and thawing of the past winter combined with heavy spring rains. Ultimately, the hands of the time pulled down the man.
