The Old Man of the Mountain in 3D
20 years after its fall, explore the icon of New Hampshire like never before
Cover Photo: Brian Post Photography
This website presents an interactive 3D model of a natural wonder lost 20 years ago: The Old Man of the Mountain on Cannon Cliff. Our research team used historical photographs and modern surveys to generate a geometrically and spatially accurate model. Details of our reconstruction methods and results are in preparation.
Scroll on to Explore
Scroll for a guided tour, or use navigation tools to explore the scene interactively. For the best experience:
- use a computer
- mobile users - scroll quickly between views so text is at the middle/top of your screen
Performance is limited on slow/mobile devices and poor internet connections. We are working to improve compatibility.
Scroll to explore New Hampshire's Franconia Notch, where The Old Man of the Mountain once stood...
Cycles of glacial advance and retreat carved Franconia Notch, a steep valley of bedrock in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
On the western flank of the notch, Cannon Cliff is a massive wall of granite nearly 1 mile across and 1000 feet high.
Ongoing research aims to understand factors that drive frequent rockfall at the cliff.
One famous rockfall was the May 3, 2003 collapse of The Old Man of the Mountain.
The Old Man was perched on the shoulder of the cliff for at least 200 years. Its fall left fresh rock surfaces, or scars, seen here.
Though the profile fell 20 years ago, we used historical photographs to recreate it in 3D.
This is a 3D model of the Old Man.
The model's shape and texture are derived from historical images. You may even notice figures hanging from the profile.
Most photographs of The Old Man were taken from this distinctive perspective.
Photo: Workers installing turnbuckles in 1958. 1
During maintenance and analysis efforts in 1958 and 1976, helicopters took photographs from perspectives most visitors never saw.
Niels Nielson and caretakers work to preserve the profile (1958). 1
These photographs enabled us to apply structure-from-motion photogrammetry, a technique that uses different perspectives to estimate 3D geometry.
Images capturing The Old Man from non-traditional angles, like this view looking north, were crucial to the reconstruction.
Photo: Survey to assess stability before constructing highway I-93 (1976). 1
Each of these photos, and dozens more, were used to contribute to this 3D representation of The Old Man, which captures the geometry more completely than ever before.
With this new model, we compared the cliff surface before and after the collapse.
For the first time, we are able to estimate that approximately 750 cubic meters of granite fell in the collapse.
That volume of granite weighs about 2000 tons, almost as much as the space shuttle at launch .
To keep exploring: - toggle the full-screen button at top-right - interact with the model
Scroll to end the tour
Archival Image Credit
(1) Historical photographs were provided by The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund; the majority are from the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund's Richard F. Hamilton Collection.
Learn More
The remarkable geology and intense weathering at Cannon Cliff combined to form the Old Man of the Mountain. We are studying these interactions to understand how rockfall type and risk vary across the cliff face and over time. By mapping geological structures and inventorying physical and chemical weathering processes acting upon them, we hope to better understand rockfall dynamics at Cannon and other steep bedrock landscapes.
To learn more about the Old Man of the Mountain model, as well as ongoing research at Cannon Cliff check out the project website .
The Old Man 3D Project Team
- Matthew Maclay - Graduate Student - Dept. of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth
- Brian Fowler - President - Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund
- Marisa Palucis - Assistant Professor - Dept. of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth
- Carolin Ferwerda - Research Scientist - Dept. of Anthropology, Dartmouth
- Jesse Casana - Professor - Dept. of Anthropology, Dartmouth
Acknowledgments
This project is a collaboration with support, coordination, and contributions from:
- Dept. of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth
- The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund
- Franconia Notch State Park
- The Jones Media Center at Dartmouth
- The Museum of the White Mountains
- Dartmouth Spatial Archaeometry Lab
- Jonathan Chipman, Asst. Professor, Dartmouth
- The Citrin Family GIS/Applied Spatial Analysis Lab
- Ed Meyer, Research Scientist, Dartmouth
- and many others.
Our profound thanks to all who made this work possible.
Project funding in part by:
- National Science Foundation Grant: NSF-OPP-2116471.
- NASA grant: NASA-SSW-80NSSC19K0539
- A grant from the National Science Foundation’s Archaeometry Program (#1822107).
- A grant from the Neukom Institute for Computational Science supported the acquisition of equipment and software used in this research.
