Old Man of the Mountain

[Johnskiismore]

So, the State of New Hampshire may fund at the tune of around 2.5 million dollars to reconstruct the 'Old Man' in Franconia Notch.

What are some of your views on this? Is this just throwing money in the wind? An engineering nightmare in the making? Is returning the states symbol really worth it when money is needed in other public sectors..... in some cases deperately as my girlfriend teaches in Berlin, NH and I've heard a lot of not so great news just from that one area.

 

[RootDKJ]

while it would provide some jobs, it seems like a huge waste of money. 2.5 mil could re-pave a lot of roads or clean up a park

 

[Geoff]

I'll reserve judgement until I see the end result. Summer tourism is very important in that part of the state. If it looks original, fine. If it looks like a Disney paper mache version, it will be a net negative.

 

[riverc0il]

I thought this was done and buried with the Old Man museum. Startling that NH of all states would dream up this incredible waste of tax payer dollars. Maybe, just maybe, the mystique that drew people from hundreds of miles away to see the old man is that it was a natural formation. A so called "freak of nature" that just happened to have a striking resemblance to the profile of a human that viewed it from a certain location. I find it hard to believe a man made replica would really draw in enough tourism dollars to justify the expense. Let alone the fact that it is an affront to the natural beauty of the rest of the State Park.

 

[Paul]

I thought this was done and buried with the Old Man museum. Startling that NH of all states would dream up this incredible waste of tax payer dollars. Maybe, just maybe, the mystique that drew people from hundreds of miles away to see the old man is that it was a natural formation. A so called "freak of nature" that just happened to have a striking resemblance to the profile of a human that viewed it from a certain location. I find it hard to believe a man made replica would really draw in enough tourism dollars to justify the expense. Let alone the fact that it is an affront to the natural beauty of the rest of the State Park.

+1

 

[Warp Daddy]

Help people with the money, screw these boondoggle projects !

 

[severine]

I thought this was done and buried with the Old Man museum. Startling that NH of all states would dream up this incredible waste of tax payer dollars. Maybe, just maybe, the mystique that drew people from hundreds of miles away to see the old man is that it was a natural formation. A so called "freak of nature" that just happened to have a striking resemblance to the profile of a human that viewed it from a certain location. I find it hard to believe a man made replica would really draw in enough tourism dollars to justify the expense. Let alone the fact that it is an affront to the natural beauty of the rest of the State Park.

+2

Besides, Indian Head is right down the road. They can go see that for a natural formation... :lol:

 

[hammer]

I thought this was done and buried with the Old Man museum. Startling that NH of all states would dream up this incredible waste of tax payer dollars. Maybe, just maybe, the mystique that drew people from hundreds of miles away to see the old man is that it was a natural formation. A so called "freak of nature" that just happened to have a striking resemblance to the profile of a human that viewed it from a certain location. I find it hard to believe a man made replica would really draw in enough tourism dollars to justify the expense. Let alone the fact that it is an affront to the natural beauty of the rest of the State Park.

+3

Are they hoping to get money from the federal stimulus bill for this?

 

[Mildcat]

NH's version of "The Big Dig". :lol:

Friday I was driving through the notch and thought about how I miss seeing it but I think the money could be put to much better use. There's so much to see in the White Mt's I don't think a giant Mr Potato Head will attract a lot of additional tourists. Maybe in a better economy they could get private investors to flip a major chunk of the bill.

 

[Johnskiismore]

I agree that this will be a WASTE of money! Sure people miss the old man, but people visiting the area still go to look 'where he was'. The museum as mentioned is there to provide pictures, history, etc. Mother Nature created the Old Man, man helped perserve it for a long time with re-bar, cables, and cement, but over time nature took its course.

Enjoy and pass on the memory, can't recreate a natural phenomenon

 

[AMAC2233]

If you saw it, you saw it. What would you rather tell your kids/grandkids 20 years down the road?
Here's the Old Man of the Mountain, that fell down 30 years ago, and the state paid millions to re-build it by carving a face out of the rock. (Imagine the response: what?)
OR
Here's where this cool, natural phenomenon called Old Man of the Mountain used to be. It was a natural rock formation on the side of a mountain that actually looked like a face. It was a great symbol of New Hampshire pride that was, as it was formed, naturally destroyed - that's how nature works.

 

[ctenidae]

I'm just glad that the NH state budget is in such fine shape, and that there's nothing else in the state that would benefit from $2.5 million.

 

[riverc0il]

I'm just glad that the NH state budget is in such fine shape, and that there's nothing else in the state that would benefit from $2.5 million.

Ironically, there is a huge budget short fall currently in the state, and likely to get worse as property and business tax revenue continues to decline.

 

[Vortex]

I need more info. Depends on if the money will come back through tourism.

 

[deadheadskier]

Personally, I'd rather see the money spent on the other side of the mountain with snowmaking upgrades :lol:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Think of the waterslide they could build with that..or maybe they can use the money to build the worlds largest snowcone..

taxpayer money should be used for important things..this sort of project should be funded through donations..

 

[Vortex]

GrilledCheese. Our state survives on tourism, retail sales, and high tech in the south. I think its worthy of debate at least to see if it would help the tourism industry.

 

[bvibert]

I think they should totally rebuild, but make it better. They could give it a more modern look and put facilities inside of it. Imagine eating a gourmet lunch inside the forehead! Some sort of mechanized transportation to get up to it would be needed too, of course.

 

[ctenidae]

I think they should totally rebuild, but make it better. They could give it a more modern look and put facilities inside of it. Imagine eating a gourmet lunch inside the forehead! Some sort of mechanized transportation to get up to it would be needed too, of course.

And a wide range of memorabilia- shot glasses, custom Monompoly, and ViewMaster disks.

 

[bvibert]

And a wide range of memorabilia- shot glasses, custom Monompoly, and ViewMaster disks.

Don't they have all that stuff for the old man already?