New Hampshire mourns the loss of an old friend

The state's landmark stone face crashed to the valley floor sometime in the last day or two. (The mountain was obscured by fog, so no one knows exactly when it happened.) The Concord Monitor writes:

The Old Man of the Mountain, the stern granite profile that symbolized the state's independence and stubbornness, is gone, likely the victim of the same natural forces that created it thousands of years ago.

[...]

Daniel Webster, a 19th century New Hampshire statesman, once wrote, referring to the Old Man,

"Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."