A Slice of New Hampshire--A Fond Farewell
by Valarie Gauthier, Bibliographer, Collection Management Services
AP Photo
AP Photo
May 3, 2003, New Hampshire bade a fond farewell to its state symbol-the Old Man of the Mountain. Sometime during the cold rainy night, the Old Man fell from the craggy perch he had graced for thousands of years, landing in a pile of rubble at the base.
The Old Man was first documented in 1805 by Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, members of a road crew cutting their way north through Franconia Notch. The stone profile was soon adopted as the New Hampshire state symbol, viewed as a tribute to man and to the spirit of the new nation.
The Old Man was the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Great Stone Face," and also served as inspiration for Daniel Webster who immortalized him in his famous quote, "in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."
By the mid-1800s, the Old Man became a state legend and tourism flourished. The craggy profile of the Old Man in time came to symbolize traditional Yankee life. People from around the nation came to view his wise countenance.
It became apparent very early that the Old Man was worth preserving, and in 1916, Governor Spaulding began to set aside funds to aid in the preservation of this natural wonder. In 1957, Stanton Young performed the first major repair on the Old Man, stabilizing a crack in the visage which threatened to rip him from the mountain.
But the most famous caretaker of the Old Man was Niels Nielson. Nielson took on the unofficial job of caretaker of the Old Man in 1960, cleaning cracks and tightening the turnbuckles which helped secure the Old Man to Cannon Mountain. Nielson was the first person to begin preservation work on the work on the south face. He took annual measurements and aerial surveys of the Old Man to aid in planning necessary repairs. Nielson took his responsibility very seriously, and knew the Old Man as his friend. When Nielson could no longer safely make the hike up the face, he passed the caretaker's duty to his son David. Nielson still made aerial surveys and helped in the planned repairs, he wouldn't let "his baby" go. Nielson died in 2001, and his ashes were tucked in the Old Man's left eye socket at his request.
No one was there to witness his demise; the Old Man slipped away in the cold dark of a rainy New England night. Nielson's remains were carried down the mountain to lay at rest with "his baby," the Old Man of the Mountain.
