A new way to see the Old Man of the Mountain
‘It’s remarkable that 20 years after it collapsed, the Old Man of the Mountain is still bringing people together.’ MATTHEW MACLAY, created interactive 3-D visualization of the New Hampshire icon
CONCORD, N.H. — Presiding over New Hampshire from its perch high on Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch State Park, the Old Man of the Mountain was an iconic New Hampshire landmark that crumbled on May 3, 2003.
Also known as the great “Stone Face” by the Abenaki, it remains an important state emblem 20 years later, though its rugged profile has drastically changed. Now, it’s immortalized in a 3-D visualization depicting perspectives of the old granite formation that haven’t been seen before.
Matthew Maclay created the interactive model as a part of his graduate studies in earth sciences at Dartmouth College. He employed a technique called digital photogrammetry, using photographs taken from different perspectives to reconstruct 3D geometry.
“It’s remarkable that 20 years after it collapsed, the Old Man of the Mountain is still bringing people together,” Maclay said. “He’s such an icon and such an important symbol to so many people.”
The distinctive formation was actually a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H. Maclay began his research hoping to better understand “bedrock weathering,” how rocks and minerals break down and eventually lead to rock fall. He wanted to see if researchers could predict what parts of the cliff were especially susceptible to rock fall and why. He also wanted to know how climate change is impacting this natural process, which remains an open question at this stage in his research.
Cannon Mountain was perfect for Maclay’s research: a dynamic environment where the climate is visibly impacting the landscape’s evolution. The cliff area is about one mile long and 1,000 feet tall. Maclay said it was likely the place in the White Mountains with the
most rockfall occurring.
When Maclay looked at the history of the rock formation, he learned that The Old Man of the Mountain had been an economic catalyst for the North Country for nearly 200 years. A Franconia surveying team noted it in their records around 1805, and Maclay found an 1876 guide book urging people to visit the remarkable feature immediately because it wouldn’t be there long. “Even geologists back then were like, ‘This thing is amazing and it’s degrading,’” Maclay said.
He teamed up with Brian Fowler, an engineering geologist, scholar of the White Mountains and president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund. Fowler has been studying Cannon Cliff for nearly 50 years, and the two were able to secure archival images of the Old Man. That was the spark for the 3D visualization part of the project.
Fowler said Maclay ’s research is an important contribution to the field. Fowler first saw the Old Man when he was a teenager, driving on old Route 3. In 1976 he returned to study it for what was then New Hampshire’s Department of Public Works, now the Department of Transportation. They were trying to determine how to safely build I-93 without disrupting the rock formation.
Fowler was able to determine that a piece of granite roughly the size of a 4-foot-by-4-foot card table was responsible for holding up the Old Man. He knew it was delicate. When he reexamined the formation 10 years later in 1986, that formation had deteriorated significantly, which Fowler attributed to natural conditions, not highway construction. The biggest vibrations the Old Man was subject to came from warm summer winds. The second greatest disturbance was from thunderstorms, said Fowler. And third was sonic booms, which were still permitted in 1976.
“In my 50 years of mining, geology, and structural geology, I literally have never come across another natural geologic structure like that one,” Fowler said of the Old Man. “It was absolutely remarkable, especially because it was completely natural.”
When the Old Man fell in 2003, Fowler remembers people in the state meeting the news with shock. In the days that followed, votive candles and flowers were laid out in expressions of grief.
“Kind of like it would be if an important member of the family had passed,” he said.
It hit Fowler on a personal level, too. “I knew the Old Man probably as intimately as anybody could,” he said. He knew all of the cracks and lines in his face and had worked to keep the structure intact. “So I had a kind of paternal relationship with the Old Man.”
In his scientific capacity, Fowler performed the “autopsy,” determining that the Old Man had likely fallen after the granite bench holding it up for so many years had finally deteriorated and given way under its weight.
“I will always remember it as the most remarkable structure I ever saw,” Fowler said. Preparing for the 20 year anniversary of the collapse has brought back feelings of grief he experienced when it first fell.
He believes the Old Man remains an important icon for the state because it represents something sublime: a timeless, enduring presence. It was a place where people could look at the natural environment and see themselves reflected back.
The Old Man was also commemorated through legislation. On Wednesday, Governor Chris Sununu signed a bill recognizing May 3 as Old Man of the Mountain Day.