Not on the cliff. The granite profile that gave New Hampshire its emblem collapsed overnight on May 3, 2003 — the ledges let go sometime between midnight and two in the morning, after centuries of freeze and thaw finally won. What you can do is stand at Profile Plaza on the shore of Profile Lake, line yourself up behind one of seven steel 'profiler' sculptures, and watch the face snap back into place against the mountain, exactly where it hung for ten thousand years.
It is free, it takes 20 min, and it is considerably more moving than a roadside memorial has any right to be. Here is the story and the practical part.
What happened in 2003
The Old Man was never a carving — it was an accident of geology, five granite ledges on Cannon Mountain's shoulder that resolved into a man's profile from exactly one angle, forty feet from brow to chin, twelve hundred feet above Profile Lake. The state had been fighting gravity on its behalf for decades — cables, turnbuckles, epoxy — a maintenance program handed down through generations of the same family.
On the morning of May 3, 2003, park staff looked up into the fog and the face was gone. No one saw it fall. New Hampshire grieved it like a person — flowers piled at the base of the notch, front pages statewide — which sounds excessive until you remember the profile was on the state quarter, the road signs, the license plates: the state's face, literally.
What's there now
Profile Plaza sits on the lakeshore directly below the cliff. Seven steel profiler sculptures stand along the walkway, each calibrated for a different height; find the one that fits you, put your eye where it says, and the steel silhouette completes the missing profile against the mountain. It is a simple idea executed beautifully, and watching a line of strangers take turns becoming the Old Man's audience again is half the experience.
The plaza was dedicated in 2011 and finished in stages through 2020, and a small seasonal museum near the parking area keeps the relics — the turnbuckles, the historic photographs, the story of the family who maintained the face. A path and fishing platform on Profile Lake round out the stop.
How to visit
The plaza is signed off the Franconia Notch Parkway at the Cannon Mountain area, 16 min up the road from Lincoln — parking, a short flat walk to the lakeshore, no ticket, no window, open year-round in daylight. 20 to 30 min covers it unhurried; photographers and history readers linger longer.
Pair it with the rest of the notch: the Basin is minutes down the parkway, Echo Lake and the Flume anchor either end, and our Franconia Notch guide strings the whole corridor into one day. One note for planning: the Cannon aerial tramway beside the plaza is retired, with no reopening date announced, so the ride-to-the-top is off the menu — the memorial is unaffected.
Why it still matters here
Twenty-plus years on, the Old Man is still everywhere in New Hampshire — the highway signs, the state quarter in your change, the town logos. 'Live Free or Die' is the motto, but the Old Man was the face that said it, jaw set against the weather.
Locals still glance up at the empty ledge driving through the notch; the habit outlived the rock. Bring someone who grew up in New England and watch them at the profiler — the plaza was built for exactly that moment, and it lands.
From the lodge
Profile Plaza is 16 min from the door, and it slots naturally into any notch day — we usually send guests Basin first, plaza second, so the corridor builds from water to story. Go late afternoon and the light rakes the cliff where the face used to be.
Sources & official info: nhpr.org · newengland.com · nhstateparks.org
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
