The Old Man in the Mountain

Geologists speculate that the Old Man of the Mountain, formed by a retreating glacier during the last ice age, looked out over Profile Lake for more than 12,000 years. On May 3, 2003, the delicate balance that had held the "Great Stone Face" in position through the ages came to an abrupt end.

More New Hampshire Firsts, Facts, and Trivia

1. Of the thirteen original colonies, New Hampshire was the first to declare its independence from Mother England -- a full six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
    
2. The highest wind speed recorded at ground level is at Mt. Washington, on April 12, 1934. The winds were three times as fast as those in most hurricanes.
    
3. New Hampshire is the only state that ever played host at the formal conclusion of a foreign war. In 1905, Portsmouth was the scene of the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War.
    
4. The first potato planted in the United States was at Londonderry Common Field in 1719.
    
5. Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr., the first American to travel in space is from East Derry, New Hampshire.
    
6. In 1833 the first free public library in the United States was established in Peterborough.
    
7. In the town of Warner the last passenger train stopped on November 4, 1955, and the last freight in 1961. Since then the tracks through town were torn up and sold as scrap iron.
    
8. New Hampshire adopted the first legal lottery in the twentieth century United States in 1963.
    
9. Cornish Hill Pottery Company handcrafts functional stoneware decorated in the traditions of Early American and European potters with a method known as "slip trailing". The slip is a creamy mixture of clay and water and is applied to moist, almost hardened pots by hand. The slip contains various colorants, including natural clay colors and metals.
    
10. New Hampshire's present constitution was adopted in 1784; it is the second oldest in the country.
     
11. On December 30, 1828, about 400 mill girls walked out of the Dover Cotton Factory enacting the first women's strike in the United States. The Dover mill girls were forced to give in when the mill owners immediately began advertising for replacement workers.
     
12. Levi Hutchins of Concord invented the first alarm clock in 1787.
     
13. The Irish-born American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens lived and worked in Cornish from 1885 until his death at age 59 in 1907.
     
14. The Mount Washington auto road at Great Glen is New Hampshire's oldest manmade tourist attraction.
     
15. In the fall of 1999, the Town of Newbury officially opened a B&M caboose as a visitor center at Bell Cove, Newbury Harbor.
     
16. Daniel Webster was a politician and statesman, born at Franklin in 1782. He was known in his day as a mighty orator, a reputation preserved in the Stephen Vincent Benet story The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which he beats the original lawyer, Lucifer, in a contract case over a man’s soul.
     
17. New Hampshire’s State House is the oldest state capitol in which a legislature still meets in its original chambers.
     
18. Alexandria was the birthplace of Luther C. Ladd, the first enlisted soldier to lose his life in the Civil War.
     
19. The very first motorized ascent of the Mount Washington auto road was by Feelan O. Stanley, of Stanley Steamer fame, in 1899.
     
20. Dover was settled in 1623. It is the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire.
     
21. The karner blue butterfly, lynx, bald eagle, short nose sturgeon, Sunapee trout, Atlantic salmon and dwarf wedge mussel are on the State's endangered species list.
     
22. Founded in 1866 at Durham, the University of New Hampshire serves an undergraduate population of 10,500 students.
     
23. The Enfield Shaker community was one of eighteen villages located from Maine to Kentucky and from Massachusetts to Ohio.
     
24. The quintessential New England community of Wolfeboro is known as "The Oldest Summer Resort in America".
     
25. Augustus Saint-Gaudens from Cornish was the first sculptor to design an American coin. His commission became fraught with difficulties related to Saint-Gaudens’ desire for high relief relative to the demands of mass production and use.
     
26. America's Stonehenge is a 4000 year old megalithic (stone constructed) site located on Mystery Hill in Salem and presently serves as a leisurely, educational tour for the whole family.
     
27. The Pierce Manse in Concord is the home of the only New Hampshire citizen ever elected President. Franklin Pierce was a hero of the war with Mexico and the youngest President elected at that time.
     
28. The Memorial Bell Tower at Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge has four bronze bas-reliefs designed by Norman Rockwell. The bell tower is specifically dedicated to women — military and civilian — who died serving their country.
     
29. The first free public library in the United States was established at Peterborough in 1833.
     
30. The Bavarian-style hamlet of Merrimack is home to the famous eight-horse hitch, and the Clydesdales maintained by the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.
     
31. Cannon Aerial Tramway is the first aerial passenger tramway in North America. It was built in 1938 at Franconia Notch.
     
32. In Holderness Captain Pierre Havre and his canine first mate, Bogie, have built a sailing tour around the locations from the Katherine Hepburn/Henry Fonda movie On Golden Pond.
     
33. The Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord is a state-of-the art planetarium dedicated to the memory of New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
     
34. New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die". The motto comes from a statement written by the Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington.
     
35. As leaders in the revolutionary cause, New Hampshire delegates received the honor of being the first to vote for the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
     
36. New Hampshire has 10 counties, 13 municipalities, 221 towns and 22 unincorporated places.
     
37. Sarah Josepha Hale author and journalist who wrote the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in 1830 is from Newport, New Hampshire.
     
38. The Belknap Mill built at Laconia in 1823 is the oldest unaltered brick knitting mill in America.
     
39. The Blue Ghost of Wolfeboro is the U.S. Mail Boat for Lake Winnipesaukee. It makes a daily 60-mile loop delivering mail to 30 stops at camps and islands around the lake.
     
40. At Stonyfield Farm in Londonderry you can learn how yogurt is made. From cow to incubator to cooler. They give away samples and you can buy some “moo” chandise.
     
41. New Hampshire did not officially adopt a state flag until 1909. Prior to that, New Hampshire had numerous regimental flags to represent the state. The present flag has only been changed once, in 1931 when the state's seal was modified.
     
42. The USS Albacore was a prototype submarine built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and commissioned in 1953. At the time she was the fastest submarine ever designed.
     
43. The first capital city of New Hampshire was in Exeter.
     
44. The granite profile "Old Man of the Mountain" is one of the most famous natural landmarks in the state. The Old Man’s head measures 40 feet from chin to forehead and is made up of five ledges. Nature carved this profile thousands of years ago. The natural sculpture is 1,200 feet above Echo Lake.
     
45. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make approximately 1 gallon of maple syrup.
     
46. Wallace D. Lovell built the Hampton River Bridge in 1900 called the "mile-long bridge". It was reputed to be the longest wooden bridge in the world.
     
47. Captain John Smith named New Hampshire after the town of Hampshire, England.
     
48. New Hampshire has a changeable climate, with wide variations in daily and seasonal temperatures. The variations are affected by proximity to the ocean, mountains, lakes or rivers. The state enjoys all four seasons. Summers are short and cool; winters are long and cold; fall is glorious with foliage. The weather station on Mount Washington has recorded some of the coldest temperatures and strongest winds in the continental United States.
     
49. New Castle is the smallest town in New Hampshire. It covers .8 square miles, or 512 acres. The town is composed of one large island and several smaller islands, and serves as a scenic residential and recreational community.
     
50. The Pembroke Glass Works produced crown window glass from 1839 until 1850. The process of gathering molten glass on a blowpipe, and blowing the glass into a balloon shape. The blowpipe is removed, a solid "punty" rod is attached and the glass is spun rapidly until a disc is formed. When the glass cools the outer portion beyond the central knob is then cut into panes