page_title: Old Man of the Mountain
section_title: Timeline of the Old Man
hierarchical_section_title: Old Man of the Mountain / Timeline of the Old Man
caption_attribution_description: English: New Hampshire 1926 license plate
context_page_description: The Old Man of the Mountain, also known as the Great Stone Face or the Profile, was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, United States, that appeared to be the jagged profile of a face when viewed from the north. The rock formation was 1,200 feet above Profile Lake, and measured 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide. The site is located in the town of Franconia.
  The first recorded mention of the Old Man was in 1805. It collapsed on May 3, 2003.
context_section_description: Details of the history of the Old Man of the Mountain include:
  17th millennium BC–6th millennium BC — New England undergoes the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age. Glaciers cover New England and post-glacial erosion creates the cliff which would subsequently erode into the Old Man of the Mountain at Franconia Notch.
  1805 — Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, part of a Franconia surveying crew, are the first white settlers to record observing the Old Man, according to the official New Hampshire history.
  1832 — Author Nathaniel Hawthorne visits the area.
  1850 — Hawthorne publishes "The Great Stone Face", a short story inspired by his visit. The story's title becomes an alternative name for the formation.
  1869 — President Ulysses S. Grant visits the formation.
  1906 — The Reverend Guy Roberts of Massachusetts,  is the first to publicize signs of deterioration of the formation.
  1916 — New Hampshire Governor Rolland H. Spaulding begins a concerted state effort to preserve the formation.
  1926 — The formation appears on all New Hampshire passenger, dealer, replacement, and sample license plates for this year.
  1945 — The Old Man is made the New Hampshire State Emblem.
  1955 — President Dwight D. Eisenhower visits the profile as part of the Old Man's 150th "birthday" celebration.
  1958 — Major repair work to the Old Man's forehead as a result of a legislative appropriation the previous year.
  1965 — Niels Nielsen, a state highway worker, becomes unofficial guardian of the profile, in an effort to protect the formation from vandalism and the ravages of the weather.
  1974 — From 1974 to 1979, each license plate validation sticker has a likeness of the formation.
  1976 — For the United States Bicentennial the formation is once again available on the state's license plate, but it costs an extra $5 and it can only be used as a front plate.
  1986 — Vandalizing the Old Man is classified as a crime under the state criminal mischief law. Under the law (RSA 634:2 VI) it is a misdemeanor for any person to vandalize, deface or destroy any part of the Old Man, with a penalty of a fine of between $1,000 and $3,000 and restitution to the state for any damage caused.
  1987 — Nielsen is named the official caretaker of the Old Man by the state of New Hampshire. Beginning this year all passenger car license plates now have a small image of the formation at the top. This practice continued through 1999. The license plates distributed after 1999 were redesigned to feature the Old Man of the Mountain much more prominently.
  1988 — A 12-mile (19 km) stretch of Interstate 93 (which also runs jointly with U.S. Route 3 through the notch) opens below Cannon Mountain. The $56 million project, which took 30 years to build, was a compromise between desire for a four-lane interstate and those who sought to limit impact on the notch.
  1991 — David Nielsen, son of Niels Nielsen, becomes the official caretaker of the Old Man.
  2000 — The Old Man is featured on the state quarter of New Hampshire, and becomes the graphic background on passenger car license plates.
  2003 — The Old Man collapses.
  2004 — Coin-operated viewfinders are installed to show how the Old Man looked before its collapse.
  2007 — Design of an Old Man of the Mountain memorial announced.
  2010 — First phase of the state-sanctioned "Old Man of the Mountain Memorial" is unveiled.
  2011 — Profiler Plaza is dedicated on June 12.
caption: The formation on a 1926 New Hampshire license plate
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