N.H. remembers Old Man of the Mountain

The third element of the memorial will be a new park at the water's edge featuring steel cannon-like "profilers" that will allow viewers to line up the sculptures' irregular edges and "see" the outline of the Old Man on the cliff where it once appeared.

"What we're trying to do there is to make it into an activity-oriented facility rather than just a thing on the mountain," said Hamilton.

Jayne O'Connor, who succeeded Hamilton as president of White Mountain Attractions, is optimistic that the memorial will attract new visitors to the region, and the 16 attractions her company promotes. She said those attractions, which include Santa's Village, Lost River Gorge and the Polar Caves, had their best season in 15 years in 2007.

"As far as the Old Man goes, we now sort of have our own Mayflower, or one of those attractions that are long gone but are remembered and people still visit the sites," she said.

In the tourism industry, the effort to hang onto to an attraction after its physical loss is known as "attraction residuality," explains David Weaver of the University of South Carolina's School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. In 2005, he and a colleague featured the Old Man of the Mountain in a research paper highlighting the need for tourist attractions to plan for disasters.

If you go Franconia Notch State Park Old Man Of The Mountain Legacy Fund

He noted that "there was a 100-year history of trying to shore that thing up," he said of the Old Man. "We know there was gravity at work there and weathering, and so it really was just a matter of time."

Weaver said that New Hampshire's efforts to memorialize the attraction should be kept "tasteful because with the passage of time, it's really going to lose its power as an iconic attraction. For people who've never seen it before, it's just going to be some quaint old story from Grandad or something."

At the Indian Head Resort in nearby Lincoln, marketing director Stew Weldon said he believes the memorial will be popular with tourists, both repeat visitors and newcomers. His business actually picked up a bit after the Old Man's fall as curious tourists arrived to check out the wreckage, he said, and Old Man of the Mountain merchandise in the gift shop continues to sell. A coffee mug for sale depicts a moose with a tear sliding down its face next to the caption: "I Miss the Old Man."

"The Old Man of the Mountain certainly has not been forgotten," Weldon said.

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