The Old Man of the Mountain Returns to New Hampshire
Rejoice! After an almost-two-decade hiatus, The Old Man of the Mountain has been spotted once again in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
What New England’s settlers dubbed The Old Man of the Mountain was known by generations of Abenaki as the “Great Stone Face.” If you grew up in New England, you know the legend. For years, tourists and visitors in New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch would marvel at the rock formation overlooking Profile Lake. Post-Ice Age erosion had carved a face out of the rock. And New Hampshire did all it could to keep those features in place for years.
That all changed on May 3, 2003. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, the Old Man collapsed. I went on the air at WBCN that day, broke the news, and proceeded to field calls for hours from listeners reminiscing about visiting the Old Man on a drive through the Notch or a stop at Profile Lake. A memorial was dedicated in 2011 and gives you a different view, but something happed just days ago on Mount Washington that brought back the Old Man in a different way.
The Old Man of the Mountain Returns to New Hampshire
On the morning of January 27, 2023, the Mount Washington Observatory posted this to their Facebook page:
The post reads: “The Old Man of the Mountain made an appearance out of rime ice! Thanks to our summer summit volunteer Ken for checking out the webcams and letting us know. If you are interested in seeing what it currently looks like on the summit check out our Weather Cams.”
Thanks to Mother Nature, Old Man Winter, and a keen-eyed Mount Washington Observatory volunteer, we got The Old Man of the Mountain back, if only for a brief time. Gonna have to add this one to our Wicked Winter Guide!
