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Gone for 20 years, Old Man of the Mountain lives on

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE (AP) – Two decades after New Hampshire’s famed Old Man of the Mountain crumbled to pieces, the American state is paying tribute to the granite profile that symbolises its independence with new geological research, poetry, a song, and a scavenger hunt.

The 40-foot-tall natural rock formation – a series of ledges that resembled an old man’s face – was suspended 1,200 feet above Franconia Notch, held in place by turnbuckles and rods to fight erosion. It collapsed, and the rubble was discovered the morning of May 3, 2003.

“When he was up there, he represented a kind of reliantly steady, reassuring presence in a world that was otherwise changing really rapidly,” said Brian Fowler, a geologist and president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund that’s leading a planned online tribute Wednesday, with shared stories, poetry, and a new song. His departure was a stunning and shocking event, Fowler said.

The Old Man was created by a series of geologic events going back millions of years. It’s not clear how old he was; New Hampshire historical records mention it as early as 1805.

Geologists believe it formed sometime after the end of the Ice Age, perhaps as long as 12,000 years ago.

The side of Cannon Mountain, where the natural formation of the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’ once was. PHOTO: AP

Today, there’s a better sense of the volume and mass of rock that was lost when the Old Man fell from Cannon Mountain. It couldn’t be calculated before. A research project led by Dartmouth College graduate student Matthew Maclay estimates it was 750 cubic metres – “more volume than five school buses”, he said.

Maclay, who is studying soil and rock samples from the mountain, created an online interactive 3D model of the Old Man as it was at Cannon Cliff. He was assisted by Dartmouth collaborators who used a drone to do aerial surveys. He also used original film negatives taken between 1958 and 1976 that documented the rock formation and surrounding area. Viewers can see the model up close and at different angles.

“The Old Man of the Mountain may have weighed nearly 2,000 tonnes when it collapsed,” said Maclay.

“While three-inch turnbuckles had been bolted into the Old Man to try and prevent it from falling, the actual strength of the granite was degraded over centuries and that’s probably why it collapsed.”

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