FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) – It was a beautiful day in Franconia Notch, the kind of day that draws crowds of visitors with cameras to capture breathtaking scenes – and the Notch’s most famous feature – The Old Man of the Mountain granite profile.
But Sunday, the Old Man was gone, and the visitors were there to mourn, not enjoy a family outing.
The 700-ton granite face was an indistinguishable pile of rocks after cascading from its 1,200-foot high perch sometime during the weekend.
“It’s like going to a wake, like losing a member of the family,” said Jean-Marie Peterson, of nearby Littleton.
Alan Hanscom, of Andover, and his daughters Erin, 5, and Megan, 8, peered through coin-operated binoculars that used to give visitors a very close look at the craggy profile. Sunday, they saw only jagged rock and pieces of cable installed to help hold the Old Man on the side of the mountain from which he had jutted for thousands of years.
“I could tell just walking down here it was going to be kind of somber and it is, people are quiet, just looking,” he said.
On the shore of Profile Lake, a steady stream of people walked quietly to viewing areas, shaded their eyes, squinted through binoculars and cameras, and tried to grasp the news that spread over the state a day earlier. The symbol depicted on everything from license plates to road signs, the state quarter to police cars, was gone.
Even the kids were quiet. No one skipped stones in the water. No one skipped along the path.
Nearby, the Old Man’s official state sign became a memorial. Many visitors left flowers. Someone left a sign, attached to a piece of wood stuck in the ground.
“Old Man of the Mountain,” it said. “We’ll miss you.”
“I’m absolutely devastated by this,” said Jim Masterman, of South Paris, Maine. “It makes you wonder if God is unhappy with what is going on.”
Masterman said he gasped when he read the news in the morning paper, feeling he had lost a family member.
He said Franconia Notch, with the Old Man keeping watch from above, was his favorite place on earth.
“That was the face of New Hampshire,” he said.
One topic of discussion along the path was how, or even whether, to replace that face.
“What could replace it?” asked Hank Peterson. “How do you tell people it’s not the original?”
Beverly Stanwood of Hampton shook her head at the very thought.
“It’s God-made,” she said. “What are you going to do, build a cement one and stick it up there?
Sharon Camp of Hopkinton said the site should be left alone.
“I don’t think it would be the same thing,” she said.
Pat Stevens of Littleton had no suggestions, but said any kind of memorial “needs deep thought.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Craig Benson announced Sunday that former Gov. Steve Merrill would lead a task force to look into revitalizing the symbol.
In an interview, Benson said he’d already spoken with people whose ideas ran the gamut from reconstructing something on the original perch to building some sort of memorial along Profile Lake.
“Maybe there’s some room in the middle,” he said. “That’ why we need the task force. We need some people who are very smart in these areas to determine what the possibilities are and then what’s tasteful.”
He hopes to appoint the rest of the group’s members this week.
“I want to get this thing moving,” he said. “The sooner the better.”
Benson expects the group will travel to the notch and assess the site, whittle down alternatives “as to what makes sense” and probably hold public hearings.
“It’s going to be hard, because there is such an emotional attachment to so many people, to get 100 percent consensus on what is the exact right thing to do.
“But I think everybody will agree we’ve got to do something,” Benson said.
Benson also announced that next Saturday, a week after the Old Man disappeared, the state will sponsor a Family Remembrance Day in Franconia Notch.
“All of those families going up there today have very, very fond memories of being able to bring their families together and enjoy a great day,” he said.
That’s what he wants them to remember next week.
“We want people to be able to bring their pictures, or poems or family or whatever they want up there to sort of remember those days because they are special,” he said.
AP-ES-05-04-03 1524EDT
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