Middle School
Worksheets
The Old Man of the Mountain
High atop Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, an old man made his home. He was once described as "one of the most remarkable wonders of the mountain world." Visitors to his home described him as "a freak, a tyrant, stern and solemn." His face was formed from a series of five granite cliff ledges on the edge of the mountain at a place called Franconia Notch. The Wisconsin glacier that covered New England in 9,000 B.C helped create "The Old Man of the Mountain."
A Native American legend dating back to 1604 mentions the face. The legend says that going north on the Great Merrimack River leads to a mountain with a stone face.
New Hampshire history says that in 1805 a survey crew became the first white settlers to record observing the Old Man. Daniel Webster, an influential statesman from New Hampshire, wrote this about the formation after seeing it:
