Taking New Hampshire for Granite

Sorry for that pun; it's one of the most abused ones around here, and I'll probably get wacked in the back of the head for it. And I'll deserve it too.

That said, New Hampshire really is the Granite State, and a short visit here will quickly clarify why: the stuff is sticking out of the ground everywhere. Top soil is virtually an unknown commodity here, at least until you buy some from your local gardening center. Quarrying granite was a fairly obvious business venture for the first European settlers and still today, we have granite mines and carving businesses all over the place in this state. New Hampshire granite was apparently used in the construction of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Brooklyn Bridge. Stone walls were also kind of an obvious by-product of farming here in New Hampshire, given that you're literally tripping over the stuff the moment you leave the pavement here. Mind you, Vermont could have also been called the Granite State, but they went with "Freedom and Unity" instead -- which is ironic if you consider that Vermont achieved its independence by first seceding from New Hampshire (avoiding being annexed by New York in the process) and existing as a defacto independent country for fourteen years until the U.S. finally decided to recognize Vermont as a state in 1791.

Anyway, Vermont granite and history aside, any discussion of granite in New Hampshire must bring us to a very bitter subject: The Old Man of the Mountain. Remembering that we humans are the same animal that looks up at cloud formations and sees bunnies and horsies, it should not be surprising that when the first European settlers ventured into the White Mountains of northern-most New Hampshire, they saw a pile of granite slabs hanging off Cannon Mountain and declared that they saw the head of an old man. Over the years, the Old Man of the Mountain became a lucrative tourist site for New Hampshire but even more importantly, the old bugger somehow worked his way into New Hampshirities' cold, stony granite hearts, and he became a symbol for the state. Today, state roads signs and announcements often have the unmistakable outline of the Old Man. This all became a problem in the spring of 2003, however, when Mother Nature (in the form of ice, which acts like a crowbar) and vibrations from growing traffic on a nearby highway colluded to knock the Old Man down, and the granite formation collapsed. The reaction across New Hampshire was outright horror, and still today, more than seven years later, the bitterness is palpable. The state has toyed with a few different schemes including even rebuilding the Old Man with artificial materials, but ultimately settled on an artistic park nearby (ironically alongside the road that helped destroy the Old Man) memorializing the Old Man.