Old Man of the Mountain, Rock formation in Franconia, US.

Old Man of the Mountain was a rock formation on Cannon Mountain made up of five stacked granite ledges. Viewed from a specific spot along the shore of Profile Lake, these ledges formed the profile of a human face.

The rock formation developed through natural erosion after glaciers retreated roughly 12,000 years ago. It collapsed on May 3, 2003, after engineers had spent decades trying to stabilize the granite ledges with steel rods.

The Abenaki call the formation Stone Face, and it remains a symbol in their culture; the Mohawk also regard it as a symbol. An Abenaki legend tells of Nis Kizos, who kept a promise to watch from the mountain for his love Tarlo and became a stone face looking after the land. A modern addition holds that when Stone Face fell in 2003, he was reunited with Tarlo.

The formation no longer exists, so visitors look at the empty cliff of Cannon Mountain from viewing areas along Interstate 93 in Franconia Notch State Park, about 80 miles north of Concord. Coin-operated viewfinders near the base of the cliff, in place since May 2004, show a before and after of the profile. The Old Man Profiler Plaza along Profile Lake, begun in 2010 and fitted with seven iron sculptures in June 2011, lets you align the steel profile with the cliff by choosing your height and spot.

The profile was held together for decades by 20 short tons of fast-drying cement, plastic sheeting, steel rods and turnbuckles, plus a concrete gutter to divert runoff from above. A state highway and park crew returned each summer to maintain the patchwork on the forehead.