The Old Man of the Mountain Is No More
May. 5th, 2003 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteYou probably heard this, and if you had never seen it, you might not understand the sadness in this one news item. An outcropping of rock gave way, as outcroppings of rock often do, and yet it was more than that. It was at the least a geological oddity, this face on the side of a mountain in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. But at most, it was what led Daniel Webster to say:
"Men hang out signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; watchmakers a monster watch. But up in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty Himself has hung a sign to show that here in New Hampshire, He makes men."
Sometime after day's business ended on Friday, and before the first park ranger's daily inspections, The Old Man of the Mountain gave way. The state of New Hampshire lost its symbol. The world lost something that man had not quite outstripped with all his efforts to make art even from mountains.
I saw the Old Man on two vacations, once in 1981 and again in 1996. It was something to see, in a part of New England that is full of natural wonder and beauty. I'm glad I saw it.
The governor of New Hampshire - no doubt seeking to keep tourism revenue up, but also no doubt hoping to rebuild a symbol - has already appointed a chairman for a restoration committee. I'm sure such a thing can be done, but should it? Man cannot easily improve on God's works. Instead, I wonder if hologram technology has reached the point when a virtual Old Man of the Mountain can be generated, to turn on and then off, to remain us of what we lost, to remain us of the ephemeral nature even of mountains, and to also show that ideas, ideas such as awe and beauty and love of one's home, can endure long past their points of origin have become memories.
Here's the official site of Franconia Notch State Park, home of the Old Man, with a picture of what was, and a link to the breif statement about this.
http://www.nhstateparks.org/ParksPages/franconianotch/oldman.html
"Men hang out signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; watchmakers a monster watch. But up in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty Himself has hung a sign to show that here in New Hampshire, He makes men."
Sometime after day's business ended on Friday, and before the first park ranger's daily inspections, The Old Man of the Mountain gave way. The state of New Hampshire lost its symbol. The world lost something that man had not quite outstripped with all his efforts to make art even from mountains.
I saw the Old Man on two vacations, once in 1981 and again in 1996. It was something to see, in a part of New England that is full of natural wonder and beauty. I'm glad I saw it.
The governor of New Hampshire - no doubt seeking to keep tourism revenue up, but also no doubt hoping to rebuild a symbol - has already appointed a chairman for a restoration committee. I'm sure such a thing can be done, but should it? Man cannot easily improve on God's works. Instead, I wonder if hologram technology has reached the point when a virtual Old Man of the Mountain can be generated, to turn on and then off, to remain us of what we lost, to remain us of the ephemeral nature even of mountains, and to also show that ideas, ideas such as awe and beauty and love of one's home, can endure long past their points of origin have become memories.
Here's the official site of Franconia Notch State Park, home of the Old Man, with a picture of what was, and a link to the breif statement about this.
http://www.nhstateparks.org/ParksPages/franconianotch/oldman.html
