New Hampshire
Before the fall: Stories behind the Old Man of the Mountain, 22 years on
He’s a symbol of the state of New Hampshire. Almost all of us know how he fell, but how was the Old Man created? It’s been 22 years since the fall of the Old Man of the Mountain, and we’re revisiting a few stories of where he came from in the first place.
Geology
Brian Fowler, president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund and a structural geologist, says the Old Man’s creation story is a pretty simple one: He was always, slowly, falling apart.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Oh, it can’t possibly be created by Mother Nature.’ But it was,” Fowler said.
Pieces of the rock face fell from the wall in just the right way and at just the right time. Fowler says unlike man-made profiles, think Mount Rushmore, the Old Man was created by degradation, so his fate was destined to collapse.
Explorers in the area knew that long before Fowler first examined the Old Man in the 1970s.
Courtesy
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Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund
“Even back in the late 19th century, the then-state geologist, C.T. Jackson, was [telling] people: ‘If you haven’t seen it, you should get up there and have a look because it’s living on borrowed time,’” Fowler said. “A lot more time than I think he thought at that time it would have, but I drew the same conclusion.”
Since the Old Man fell in 2003, Fowler has received thousands of postcards, emails and photos from people who claim to have found another rock profile that could replace the Old Man. They do occur elsewhere from that same degradation process.
But Fowler said he doesn’t go out searching for them on his own.
“I guess I kind of figure I’ve seen the best, if you know what I mean,” Fowler said. “But they’re all over the place and people love to find them. So, I think there’s something in the human blood that is attracted to it.”
History
For years, independent curator Inez McDermott has studied the attraction and historical lore that have led people to the Old Man for centuries. She curated an exhibit at the Museum of the White Mountains for the 20th anniversary of when he fell. Fowler and McDermott are friends.
“You can look at the origin story as the geological scientific origin, which Brian [Fowler] has a good handle on, although a lot of it’s still a mystery,” McDermott said. “My understanding of the first white settlers to see the old man was in 1805, and there is still a battle between sort of two camps as to which surveying team saw it first.”
Some believe it was a team from Franconia, others say it was a team from Woodstock who first saw the Old Man.
People from urban areas in the northeast used to take horse-drawn carriage rides around New England, and would make pit stops in the White Mountains. It took a while before the Old Man gained cultural traction, the advent of rail travel helping, but McDermott said he really became a household name when the hotels and resorts started cropping up in the area in the late 1840s and 1850s.
“When people vacationed up there, a lot of times they would stay for three, four, five, six weeks,” McDermott said. “That’s when the Old Man starts to become a real tourist attraction.”
Inez McDermott
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Courtesy
A profile so massive and clear, it was described as godly or supernatural by some. The Old Man beckoned landscape painters, writers and poets to the area.
McDermott says the work of 19th century novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne further popularized the Old Man. His 1850 short story “The Great Stone Face” prompted many visitors to see the Old Man for themselves and is culturally relevant, managing to clinch a 3.8 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
In Hawthorne’s version of the story, the Old Man was part of a prophecy. It claims a man who resembles the rock face would eventually be found, and he would be “the greatest and noblest personage of his time.”
Hawthorne drew parallels between the Old Man and 19th century lawyer and New Hampshire representative Daniel Webster.
A love story
Griffin Hansen, a 25-year-old filmmaker from Goffstown, reimagined the Old Man’s origin. In Hansen’s short film, “Within the Crystal Hills,” he is an impoverished miner from Franconia Notch who, motivated by love, becomes trapped in the mountains of the notch, transformed into the Old Man.
Hansen came up with the story alongside one of his classmates from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
“She brought in these beautiful, folksy and fairy tale-esque ideas of love and romance and belonging and being something for someone,” Hansen said. “And I brought in these very New Hampshire ideas of being very disciplined, of course the Old Man of the Mountain proper and all of these elements of local history from the ironworks and Saugus to the character being named Carrigain, after the mountaineer and the mountain.”
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Within the Crystal Hills
Hansen says the Old Man’s love story brought his family together. His maternal grandmother is the narrator of “Within the Crystal Hills.” Her family has lived in New Hampshire for generations.
Hansen’s iteration of the Old Man’s origin story was completely from his mind and that of his collaborator, inspired largely by a type of animation style they wanted to try out. He acknowledges there are many other tales of the Old Man out there.
“There’s a dozen origin stories,” Hansen said. “The Abenaki have origin stories. Nathaniel Hawthorne has origin stories. A lot of people and authors from the White Mountain area have come up with their own legends, so we wanted to come up with one ourselves.”
There are origins myths attributed to the Abenaki people, but NHPR was unable to confirm those stories with direct Abenaki sources. McDermott and Fowler have done extensive research on it, and have a theory. Since the Old Man was only visible for a few hundred yards at a specific spot and there’s little evidence of human land use in the area from centuries ago, it’s possible he wasn’t seen or documented by Native Americans before the settlers who documented it in the early 1800s.
A living legacy
Whichever story you believe about his creation: a natural geological process, a prophecy from on high, or a love story, the Old Man has an enduring legacy in New Hampshire. He graces highway signs, license plates and rest stop shot glasses. Some Granite Staters have him tattooed. There’s something about the Old Man that has kept him in the cultural zeitgeist for centuries, and Fowler and McDermott said they don’t expect that to go away anytime soon.
Sara Doherty
Franklin, NH – Sara Jane (Sanford) Doherty, 79, of Franklin, New Hampshire, passed away peacefully at her home on June 11, 2026. A beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, Sara was born on June 5, 1947, in Hanover, New Hampshire, to Harold and Sadie (Pettengill) Sanford.
As the daughter of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee, Sara spent her childhood moving throughout New England, living in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. She graduated from high school in Hudson, Massachusetts, and later returned to New Hampshire, eventually settling in Franklin, where she made her home for more than forty years.
Sara built a successful career in the textile industry. She worked as a seamstress at Howland Originals before joining Star Specialty Knitting, where she began as a stitcher and, through hard work and determination, advanced to Plant Manager. She retired in 2003, and one of the greatest joys of her retirement was caring for several of her grandchildren, whom she adored.
Sara was a remarkably talented and creative artisan. She sewed clothing for her children when they were young and later created outfits for her grandchildren and their dolls. She was a gifted painter and artist whose extraordinary drawings and paintings brought joy to those around her. An accomplished seamstress, knitter, crocheter, cake decorator, and musician, Sara had an exceptional ability to create beauty in many forms. Her handmade gifts and treasured creations will be cherished by her family for generations to come.
Her talent for cake decorating blossomed into a successful side business that spanned more than thirty years. Sara created hundreds of stunning and imaginative cakes, including wedding and birthday cakes for her own children and grandchildren. Her passion for baking was so well known that for many years her license plate proudly read “CAKES+.”
Sara also had a remarkable gift for bringing people together. She hosted countless family reunions, each one more creative than the last. With elaborate themes, games, prizes, delicious food, and endless laughter, she created memories that her family will treasure forever. She was also known for her generous holiday gatherings, often welcoming more than thirty family members and friends into her home for Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. Summers brought cherished Fourth of July cookouts by Webster Lake, where Sara delighted in decorating the waterfront and gathering loved ones to enjoy the annual boat parade.
Sara’s love of giraffes was known by all who knew her. She spent years collecting hundreds of them, giving each a special “G” name. Before her passing, she shared one of her favorites, “Geebri,” with her granddaughter Sydni, who is expecting Sara’s first great-grandchild.
Her warmth, creativity, generosity, and love of family touched everyone who knew her. To say she will be missed is a vast understatement. She was truly the heart of her family.
Sara leaves behind her devoted husband of 43 years, Joel Doherty; her sons, Todd (Michelle) Chapman of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, and Paul (Cheryl) Chapman of Northfield, New Hampshire; her stepdaughters, Ali (Oliver) Frates of Amherst, New Hampshire, and Kate Hodge of Durham, New Hampshire; and her beloved grandchildren, Shelby, Sydni, Morgan, Owen, Duncan, Calum, Macy, and Elyse, and Step-grandchildren, Matthew, Jennifer, Eric, & Kevin.
Sara was predeceased by her parents.
Sara’s family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to Franklin VNA for their rapid and seamless response in setting up hospice, and to The Payson Center for their dedication and care, which gave us more precious time with her.
A graveside service will be held on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM in Franklin Cemetery, Thompson Park in Franklin.
For more information or to leave the family an online condolence, please visit www.smartmemorialhome.com.
Click here to sign the guest book or honor their memory with flowers, donations, or other heartfelt tributes
A staple of many New Hampshire town fairs, the pig scramble may soon look a little different.
A bill signed into law by Gov. Kelly Ayotte last week requires the commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture to create best practices for any event in which people compete to capture a pig. Those guidelines will be published before the 2027 fair season, so they won’t be in place for any fairs with pig scrambles this year, such as the upcoming Deerfield Fair in the fall.
Generally, a pig scramble involves people of the same age competing to capture pigs that have been let loose in a large pen. Contestants have to catch the pig in a drawstring bag, and the first one to do so can take the pig home.
Rep. Cathryn Harvey, a Democrat from Spofford, is the prime sponsor of the bill. She said each fair has different rules for their pig scrambles, meaning some can be more humane than others. One aspect of the events she hopes will change is the bags pigs are captured in.
“They’re putting an animal in a plastic bag on a hot summer day,” Harvey said. “It isn’t a great idea.”
Although some fairs already use more breathable bags out of burlap, Joan O’Brien, president of the New Hampshire Animal Rights League, said she’s also seen pigs being kept in plastic bags for long periods of time after the event. Not only would a burlap bag improve the pig’s ability to breathe in the heat, she said, but she also wants fairs to require participants to bring an animal carrier for the trip home. Her organization was ultimately in favor of the legislation.
“If you don’t have a carrier, you should not be allowed to leave your pig lying in a bag,” O’Brien said, adding that some fairs already ask contestants to bring carriers. “You should be taking them right home.”
The Deerfield Fair has implemented another rule that O’Brien and Harvey hope becomes part of statewide best practices — having parents supervise their child in the pen. O’Brien once witnessed a child hang a pig upside down by its legs and then lower it headfirst into the bag.
“In the heat of the moment, the kids get excited and they just do whatever it takes to get the pig in the bag,” O’Brien said. She said parents should work with the event referee to make sure their kid is handling the pig humanely.
Harvey’s bill originally called for pig scrambles to be banned around the state, but both she and O’Brien feel that universal guidelines for fairs would still make the experience better for the animals. Even seemingly small things, Harvey said, like giving the pigs water after the scramble, would be an improvement to the current situation for them.
“I think that the bill will embolden people to speak up at these events,” O’Brien said. “If they think a pig is being mistreated, they’ll be able to say to themselves, ‘I know that there’s supposed to be a rule, so I’m going to say something.’ So I think that would be a good outcome.”
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Sara Doherty – Concord Monitor
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