Old Man of the Mountain NH Story Collapse & Current State 

I took a photo of the Old Man May 02, 2003. My friend called me the next day and told me that he saw the story on the news that it had fallen.

I cried the day he fell, I may not be from NH but I visited it from the time I was a baby, the old man was someone we waved to every time we went past. To this day we have a moment of silence as we pass his spot. He was a huge part of my childhood, I am so glad NH is still honoring him!

We would often go to this part of New Hampshire and go to the Polar caves and the flumes and we would certainly see the old man on the mountain so many times it makes me really sad I’m 65 and it brings me back to my childhood thank you

I'm just old enough to remember seeing the Old Man with my parents during a trip to Franconia Notch. I remember Dad holding me up and saying "Look, honey. There he is." And I squinted and stared and then...I saw it. I saw a craggy old face against the sky, and I felt an immense thrill in my soul that I still remember to this day. It was more than just a jumble of rocks. The Old Man was a symbol of wonder and strength and rugged New England charm. It was something wonderful that gave us all, young and old, an occasion to stand in awe for decades.

As a New Englander, I regret that I never saw the Old Man of the Mountain. We had family up in that state, and if only I knew what I was missing.

The New Hampshire quarter shows an artifact that is no more!

I remember when he fell, my grandmother called her sister in Florida and said, "the old man died, he fell down the mountian." My aunt thought that my great-grandfather (her father) died lol.

That is so cool, I saw the old man in the mountain back in the late 70s. I saw it because the great stone face was one of my favorite stories. Thanks for the wonderfully creative way of bringing it back.

I had left New Hampshire when I was 7yo. I remember when we went to see him, my parents took a picture of him through binoculars. I never learned what happened to the 2 pictures we had. I 'ugly' cried when he fell. I still cry when I see or think of him (yes, I did cry watching)

I went to school up there in Littleton for two years (1977-1978) and have great memories of skiing Cannon and Hikeing up to see the OLd Man. I have not been back there in 20-30 years. I always thought he would be there forever. I was very sad to hear that he sucumed to the elements. He will be missed. I think the State did a great job on the memorial and I cant wait to get up there and see it

This was the one thing i always looked forward to seeing on vacations as a kid. Its sad.

Very well done, and thank you! I lived in NH until I was 12, so I saw The Old Man as a child. Moved back to the area as an adult, and took many friends and family "from away" to see the old gentleman in person. Thankful for having ad the experience. Haven't been back since the collapse, but your video makes me want to take a drive...

1:39 u can see a face in the sky to the left

My grandmother brought us up to Bethlehem every year to ski at Bretton woods during February vacation, and every time we went up, my cousins and I would fight to get a view of the old man. Punching and pushing each other out of the way to cement our snotty faces against the windows of her Buick to see him, even when it was dark (the old man on a full moon was a sight to see). I was deployed to Iraq when the old man fell, and it was as equally doleful as anything else I had experienced that year. After getting out of the military, I have made northern New Hampshire my home, and I wander the mountains of Franconia Notch and still look up at where the old man stood watch. Every year I visit the old woman of the notch (The watcher), and talk to her about the old man while looking up at his place. The old man is still there, the ambience of that area is one of a kind and something I have never experienced anywhere else in my travels around the world.

Being originally from New Hampshire, I once had the immense privilege of seeing the Old Man in all his glory. I was devastated when I saw the headline that New England weather had brought him down. Seeing the creativity in that rod arrangement is a great way to show what the Old Man looked like.

Nice video thank you my husband had got to see the old man many years ago a number of times on family vacations growing up. And he has always liked it. I m sad that ill never get to see it.

Great video. I'm fortunate enough to have seen "him" a few times, and was saddened, as a New Englander, to hear of the collapse. I agree, New Hampshire got it right. Thank you for the information and entertainment.

Great job.. I've seen both and you've brought a a tear to my eye.. well done..

Rest in peace, Old Man. 13 years later.

I was lucky to see him in person! This is a great tribute and knowledge! Thanks!

I felt terrible the day it fell, I am so glad I got to see it in person. What a wonderful memorial

I remembered seeing this in 1991.

They should have installed a fiberglass replica to replace his face!

I was at the site a week before it fell. It was amazing everytime I went. A once in a lifetime experience to see when it was there.

Rest in pieces, Old Man.

I used to see it every day growing up, always wanted to take my family up to North Woodstock when the kids got older

I remember many a Summer with my old man, at the old man, Taking the tram to the top, looking over the lake, running in the scrub brush...... I miss those days.

Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.

What a brilliant way to keep an old legend alive I currently plan to visit the site one day

I was lucky enough to have seen the original and climbed on Cannon Mountain in my rock climbing days.

When I was a kid, when my dad would point out the Old Man, I used to think it was the same old man who was snoring and fell off his bed then bumped his head and couldn't get up in the morning. I used to look for an old dude atop the mountain and wondered why anybody would live up there. I pictured him living in some old cabin. Ahhhhhh childhood! 😆 RIP Old Man 💕

I got to see it in June 2002 when I was 11

Nice post. Very well done. It makes you want to go there, even with it gone.

Thank you for posting this video. I came here after seeing a picture of my beloved Joe Biden at his son's funeral. As a midwesterner, I had a faint recollection of the other stoic profile in New England, that of the Old Man. Live Free or Die. Live fully. Live to contribute. Live strong to be able to withstand "whatever nature throws at you." At this moment, I am embracing the images of Joe and The Old Man. Serenity and Courage to you...to us all.

I was there in 1987. Saw if from the park but also remember driving by on the highway and slowly seeing it appear out of the rock cliff.

I miss him so much....His spirit lives on!!

building a replica would have been a ridiculous move,,what man the old man so special was the fact the he was "natural"

I had no clue it even collapsed. So sad, glad my father took me to see it as a kid.

I went to Maine in 2001 or 2002, I don't remember, but I was 2-3 years old and was so amazed by it, we went back a couple years later and heard that it had fallen, I was crushed as a little kid lmao

Was only 7 when it collapsed, I genuinely can't remember if I saw him or not. I feel like I remember my parents pointing to him on my way to s hockey game when I was 6 or 7, but they might have just pointed to where he was before collapsing months prior. Wish I saw him as an adult.

I respect that Old Man a lot.

That was the one thing I wanted to see in my life time because I’m a die hard NH fan and the weekend we planned on driving up to see it IT FELL OFF!!! Fml

I spent many of summers in Franconia Notch NH and Lincoln NH and I remember my family would get so excited , and it was just amazing and the most awesome of summers spent on the mountain's of NH , back then there was just a two lane Hwy and you could actually drive slow and really enjoy the view, then thruways and Hwy's came and people would drive 80 miles an hr , I have the greatest of memories of my summers spent in NH

Something out of one of the Tim Dorsey "Serge" books -- he loved the Old Man of the Mountain. Somewhere, in one of his books, he mentions that New Hampshire License Plates bear their legend, "Live Free or Die!" The license plates, he says, are made in New Hampshire prisons...........

I remember seeing it with my grandmother when I was about 10 years old, about 1982. good memories :)

And THIS, ladies and gentlemen is why we need more than just STEM programs in school. Stalin had the best STEM programs in the world in his day, but nothing approaching great artists (who weren't put in gulags). SUPPORT THE ARTS!

The Old Man was one of us!

part of my childhood along with indian moccasons and the three dancing bears that gobbled up peanuts.....never would have seen a bear otherwise in my life! Real is great....too bad they don t have a virtual reality tour for your childhood memories with all this smart technology....

i remember when he fell, it was absolutely gut wrenching

Boy is that lake cold...

I am so proud of your state! What an amazing way to look at the old Man!! Elegant, ingenious way to preserve this memory for the ages to come. (thanks to Ben:ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7B_9nPYLzRc.html ) amazing amazing so proud of your state/humanity there.

Great idea with the rods...

Posted my video from the top. It's short but you can see the broken supports. To think I've stood on the rocks supported by them is a bit scary.

The profiler plaza is a good way to honor the Old Man of the Mountain, but I prefer we rebuild it as it was somehow. I am sad I never got to see him in person though.

Amazing that people are so upset over a rock formation. Nothing lasts forever people, get over it

How about slightly further down the road, The cliff face, cut, jagged in such a way... It's the sliding door

see this link to the 1958 restoration of the old man by my great uncle Louis Masse of N. Tewksbury, Ma....uncle Louie's company, Waterproofing Engineering of Revere got the contract and drilled the cores in pink granite to mount those steel cables...all work was highly skilled and uncle had many articles written about him and his crew and the special formula they used to cement patches over the large cracks to forestall collapse...it worked from 1958 until 2003 and kept 2 more generations seeing the Old Man...Steve Masse of Lowell, Ma see this histroic footage not seen by many: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--VSsL5rBEWw.html

Wait i saw it in either 2013 or 2014?

My Grandfather broke his back working on the old man’s nose when I was a child.

I thought you could find this in the Scarlett Meadows region of the Lemoyne territory..

05/02/2020.- The Old Man collapsed to the ground between midnight and 2 a.m. on May 3, 2003, 17 years ago.

I saw it about 50 years ago.

Climbed this before and after. Climbed it again over the weekend, sad to see it's gone. There are still supports hanging over the edge. I'll post a short video i made at the top where his head was. Amazing view from up there.

Cool solution!

Given enough time nature will corrode the entire profile of America and its mountains, this same had happened to the inland Western Australian State's mountains and huge uplifted volcanic pyroclastic eruption form cones, now they and the mountains are little more than endless miles of a flat-land country peppered by the occasional sand-dunes in many of its arid interiors. This same State has a visible ancient bed of Australia's Archean or earlier era Greenstone to compare to all other rock forms in our land of Australia. The Earth was once calculated by geologists to be 3 Billion years in its formation, this has since been stretched to 4.5 Billion years in its formation.

Just drove through NH and saw the remnants of the Old F*ckface of the Foothills.

I saw it in 1988, riding down the Kancamagus Hwy in Franconia Notch. I didn't even know it collapsed.

I saw it when I was a kid

Any one remember the bear park that used to be near the base of this ICON I was about 1973

I moved to nh in '03 and it collapsed. all the road signs had it's picture. it's kinda funny

It wasn’t carved by man but by nature

They made it of ice now

The old man didn’t die He simply became older

Flash Gordon theme music!

It reminds me of a battling robots game I had as a kid in the 1970's hit him square on the jaw and his head shot up on a ratchet.

Hey, it's an interesting rock formation, or at least it WAS, and I'm glad for the tourism it promoted. However, it was really a stretch for me to see the "old man". Seriously. I know, I know, many people will probably disagree with me and call me some kind of scrooge! LOL Now if you want to really see something, we have this Piasa Bird in Missouri. There's a huge painting of it, in living color, on a cliff, not far from St. Louis. I think it's on what is called the Great River Road along the Mississippi. Yep, the old Piasa Bird really truly existed, not like the Old Man which is only rock, and it would pick up unruly children in its talons and take them off to his nest up in the bluffs, never to be seen again. Or something like that!! Google it!

Im in NH

The old man of the mountain wasn't just a rock.

i live in NH

Live Free or Die ❤️

We need to rebuild it.

😭

there is a rock formation just a few feet off the ground just on the way into town in Nanaimo bc Canada that sort of looks like the front of a killer whale coming out of the rock, so much so that someone painted it to look even more like a whale, that was some 15 or so years ago and its still there to this day.....

someone pick me up and take me outta this city

Leave it to New Englanders to come up with the perfect solution.

It got Destroyed at night in 2013 or some else I said before you did

THE OLD MAN ON THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE LIVE FREE OR DIE FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I'M FREE AT LAST MLK👵👴

For Christ. God took out old man

It fell apart because corrosion

People dies in the collapsing mountain😱💀☠️

who here from ludwig lol

Think it's a titan

I heard some young dudes with a few sticks of dynamite blew up the old man of the mountain, except the Government keeping hush on this!.

the more I look at those blocks of stine face mountain . they remind me of the SACAHUMAN UN PERU SOUTH AM. PERHAPS MAYBE THIS WAS PREFLOOD CIVILAZATION MOUNMENT NO DIFFERENT THAN MARKAWASI .SA. IT MAY NOT BE NATURAL.

Cannon mountain looks like a finger

TOTS RAD

Rods would not do it for me. They need to make another one as a monument and erect it back...some of the original stones could be embedded in the face

MM

Is not a natural formation

Stone Face in Pennington Gap, Virginia is 100000% better and you do not have to squint to see it, and hangs over a well traveled curvy road.