The Virtual Past

This semester my major research project consists of surveying 20^th century meanings behind natural monuments. Much of my research focuses on the establishment of parks—private, state and federal as a means of formalizing meaning regarding these monuments. In particular, I am surveying information on Old Man of the Mountain, Luray Caverns, Natural Bridge, Devil’s Tower, and Old Faithful. For the purposes of this web survey, I wanted to see what was out there in the Digital World that pertained to these particular sites. For obvious reasons the Old Man of the Mountain (due to its collapse a few years ago) has the most non-official sites—sites dedicated to the memory of this natural wonder which played a significant part in New Hampshire’s identity. The other sites have a mixture of sites based on their place in the environment, the tourist industry, and basic blogs /photo collections on specific trips. Below you will find a sampling of the websites resulting from this search.

Methodology: To some extent my web review was based on keyword based search— typing in the name of the attraction in various search engines to see what came up. That being said, instead of merely looking at the top page links, I broadened my evaluation of sties up to page ten, supplementing these searches through variations of keyword searches i.e. adding ‘history’, ‘archives’, ‘photos’ as qualifiers. My primary search engine was Google, though the majority of the links often doubled up. Another means of searching the digital landscape (and the links are too numerous to list here) was to continue to look at the Washington Post’s historical newspaper archives. It is my intention to do the same for other major publications regarding each of these sites. In terms of images, I have also been working with the Library of Congresses’ American Memory Collection to tease out images and other documents that may pertain to this subject. In addition this survey provided locations and contact information for possible archives regarding the institution of these parks.

Each of these websites range from the formal to the informal, addressing various audiences from those taking road trips to the intrepid climbers determined to maintain their favorite climbing spot despite claims of religious meaning. The official sites provide essential information for visitors from camping, hotel, and dining information to rules and regulations about proper decorum within the parks atmosphere. In addition these websites also list surrounding attractions for visitors to see—especially the central sites for Luray Caverns and Natural Bridge. That being said, there were also some surprises. In particular a link off of IMDB (The Internet Movie Database: www.imdb.com) for a 1919 documentary on Old Faithful.

An Annotation of Websites:

Old Man of the Mountain

http://www.nh.gov/ask/index.html

This website is for the New Hampshire Library helpdesk. Not necessarily dealing directly with Old Man of the Mountain, this site is good because it allows me to directly converse with librarians about accessing documents relating to the Old Man.

http://www.nhparks.state.nh.us/ParksPages/franconianotch/oldman.html

The URL links to the home page of Franconia Notch State Park. This webpage deals specifically with the Old Man of the Mountain providing a timeline, information about the collapse and other pertinent information regarding the former edifice. Perhaps the most useful element about this site is the scrapbook which lists memories, submitted by former visitors and links to images and books dealing with the memory of the Mountain.

http://www.mutha.com/oldmanmt.html

Last edited May 3, 2003 (the date of the monument’s collapse) this website is nestled within another site dealing with a specific area of New Hampshire. To some extent, this page is a remembrance of sort in that shortly after its collapse it appears to have been modified with links to newspaper articles from the Manchester Union Leader and poetry about what its loss meant to New Hampshire.

http://www.nh.gov/oldman/

This is the official New Hampshire page regarding the future of Old Man of the Mountain. From links to remembrance video’s, the park systems scrapbook, and legislation information, this page provides coverage for those wondering what is going to happen next. Its interesting, since it deals with an element of escapism in the sense that once nature has finally run its course—is reconstructing a physical reconstruction of that memory? Is the experience the same if visitor know that what they are seeing is not really made in nature?

http://www.twinmountain.com/oldman.php

Part of a website for a “four season” town, Twin Mountain, this page describes the collapse of the Old Man. In addition to images and descriptions, this page also has a testimonial from one New Hampshire who claims (and demarcates) a ‘new’ profile for the Old Man. While still a page for a tourist locale, www.twinmountain.com still represents a little more of a grassroots reaction to the mountain’s collapse.

http://www.mountwashington.org/oldman/

This page for the Mount Washington observatory describes the collapse of the Old Man, not only linking to press releases but also providing a graphic of the geological structure of the profile. The page links to a book published in memory of the Old Man-complete with images and testimonials.

http://webarchive.unionleader.com/subject.html?field=oldman

A little more distant from the typical tourist websites is the web archive of the Manchester Union Leader. This newspaper published and continues to publish, a plethora of articles dealing with the Old Man and his future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Mountain

A more popular site, and interesting since in this course we have (or will discuss) the place of wiki’s in research and academia, this is the wikipedia entry for the Old Man of the Mountain. It provides all the factual information about the Old Man, along with links to the New Hampshire criminal code which makes it a state crime to vandalize the structure. In addition it has a great image of a stamp from 1955 that has the visage of the Old Man.

http://seacoastnh.com/poems/oldman.html

This is an interesting site, because it attempts to start a collection of poems and writings dealing with the structure. As an embedded symbol for New Hampshire’s identity, the Old Man was inspiration for writers such as Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow etc. This page provides a few such examples in remembrance of a symbol now lost.

Devil’s Tower

http://www.nps.gov/deto/

This website is the official National Park Service site which provides the information that Devil’s Tower was the first National Monument in the country established in 1906. In addition to historical information this site also provides hours, climbing, and accessibility. To some extent this is the guidepost to the official narrative about the monument.

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/devils_tower.html

A general page that talks about Devil’s Tower in terms of its rock formation and also has a list of some additional sources about the geological formations related to the structure. It also links to another page which provides facts and figures about the monument and also provides a short creation myth related to the local Indian tribe.

http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/getting_here/devils_tower_wyoming.php

A part of a travel guide made by the locals of this page gives information pertinent to the tower, with park features, travelers, highlights and interestingly something called “gateway towns” linking Devil’s Tower with other area attractions.

http://www.devils-tower.com/freedom/

This website provides the most interesting point of research in the digital survey. This is a website devoted to the almost-closure of Devil’s Tower to climbing. Apparently, it was stopped by the courts saying that one particular religious observance (i.e. Native American’s seeing the monument as a sacred space) does not preclude climbers from being allowed to use it. This site, though limited, is helpful in teasing out one aspect of this relatively recent controversy.

Natural Bridge