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It's been a year since New Hampshire's Old Man fell

New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain fell out of sight a year ago, but he is hardly out of mind.

A giant twisted turnbuckle that once held New Hampshire's granite symbol together, The Old Man of the Mountain, sits in the boulder field with the Old Man's remains in Franconia, N.H. Wednesday April 28, 2004. New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain, the celebrated rock formation featured in the state's commemorative quarter, broke apart one year ago. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) -

People still stop at viewing areas in Franconia Notch to gaze at the jagged cliff that once held the stern granite profile that graces New Hampshire license plates, police patches, highway signs and the state quarter.

Many still take photos of - well, not much.

"We always came to look at it and now there's nothing to look at, but we had to come," said Melissa Peluso of Boston, who stopped by on a rainy day recently.

In the Old Man's place is an undefined, jagged cliff. Observant viewers will notice one area that's a light rust color, not the dark, weathered gray of most of the rocks 1,200 feet above the valley floor. That's where the 40-foot-high profile perched until May 3, 2003.

They also might notice lighter-colored gouges a little farther down the mountain. Those close to the Old Man call them scars. That's where the tons of rocks that once made up the profile dropped onto a cliff below, broke into smithereens and tumbled into a boulder field.

"It feels more like a graveyard than anything else," said David Nielsen, who has been in the boulder field. His family took care of the profile for decades, patching cracks and checking the thick metal rods and turnbuckles that fought against the freezing and thawing that eventually pried him loose.

Nielsen said some boulder-sized pieces of the Old Man can be recovered, and probably will end up in a museum dedicated to him.

Recommended by a task force, the museum will be built at the base of Cannon Mountain, a popular skiing mountain in the notch, the local term for a mountain pass.

On Monday, the anniversary, the state will unveil viewfinders in parking areas that give visitors a closeup look at what remains on the perch, and an image of the profile before it fell.

That evening, the state will present its first Profile Awards to an individual, a community and an organization who have honored New Hampshire's heritage or treasures. Officials also will kick off a drive to raise money to carry out the task force's recommendations.

They include a traveling display and a curriculum for schools and libraries to teach about the geology and significance of the Old Man.

The significance was felt keenly by Nielsen, whose father's ashes were tucked into the profile's eye when the father died after decades of being the profile's caretaker. Though the son has had a busy year - with the task force, his retirement as town police chief and the start of a new job - he said memories of the Old Man have been with him constantly.

"How often do you think about when your mother or father died, or grandmother and grandfather died?" he said. "The first couple of years after they pass away, you think about them almost on a daily basis, whether you are flat out busy or not. That's kind of what the Old Man is."

When Nielsen and some Old Man volunteers hiked to the perch last summer, it was "a very solemn kind of visit to see and to remember things that you took for granted and are not there anymore."

"It was very haunting to be there," he said.

Dick Hamilton, president of the tourism group White Mountain Attractions, drives by the site every day. He said seeing the scars and knowing the remains are strewn through the boulder field is spooky.

"I get a little worked up when I go by and look up and know all that stuff is there," he said.

"Some nights, when conditions are kind of strange, and a cloud goes by, the hair stands up on the back of my neck. It's doing it right now as I'm talking to you," he said.

Hamilton spent a lot of time last summer watching and listening as people gazed toward the Old Man's perch.

"One couple from Massachusetts was looking up and they said 'You know, (John) asked me to marry him right here'," Hamilton said.

Former Gov. Steve Merrill, who led the task force, said it received notes from around the world recounting other personal connections. An Australian couple said they first saw the profile on their honeymoon. Others wrote of bringing aging family members to see the Old Man for the last time before they died.

Merrill said balancing respect for the past with the urge to preserve something meaningful was daunting.

"For all of us, it was as though we were treading on sacred ground," he said.

The task force received more than 5,000 suggestions. Several hundred supported rebuilding the profile in plaster, rubber or fiberglass, or by way of a holographic image projected into the sky.

The idea of rebuilding prompted passionate debate: Some said future generations deserved a replica; others said that would dishonor a symbol of authenticity and integrity.

Merrill said two developments weighed against rebuilding. "First, the state geologist told us ... the ice and snow had eaten sufficiently into the fissures on the face that whatever we put there would fall, probably sooner, not later."

And, he said, over time, people "came to see what nature put there, nature should also take away."

At the mountain, the debate hasn't died.

Bill and Janice Huntley of Madison brought their grandchildren to see the remains during school vacation last week. Huntley, 66, would like to see something back on the cliff. "Now it looks something like a gargoyle."

But Janice Huntley, 60, who has been coming to see the profile for 54 years, opposes rebuilding.

"It's one of those things you expect will always be there, so to see it gone is a sadness. But by the same token, life changes, so things change," she said.

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In addition to a museum, there are decanters, snow globes and ashtrays

By The Associated Press

While New Hampshire prepares to kick off a fund drive for a museum and other tributes to its fallen Old Man of the Mountain, memorabilia-makers ratcheted up production of trinkets, T-shirts and other items soon after his demise a year ago Monday.

A specially treated Old Man coffee mug reacts to heat, so users see the granite profile disappear every time they pour a fresh cup.

This week, there were several dozen Old Man items on the Internet auction site, eBay. They ranged from post cards to liquor decanters, cream pitchers to patches, wrist watches to snow globes and ashtrays.

The official Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund begins fund-raising for a museum and other memorials at a dinner Monday night in Manchester.

The occasion also will inaugurate annual Profile Awards. The first recipients will be an organization, a municipality and an individual who "fought to preserve, promote and protect the qualities we associated with the character of the Old Man of the Mountain," said Maura Weston, president of the fund's board of directors.

Posted by thinkum at April 29, 2004 04:48 PM