Bangor resident says city has its own 'Man of the Mountain'
8/15/09 | 24 comments
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Bangor resident says city has its own 'Man of the Mountain'


By Dan MacLeod
BDN Staff
AP FILE PHOTO
Crews work on the Old Man of the Mountain in Franconia, N.H., in the 1990s.
BANGOR, Maine — Franconia, N.H., had its Old Man of the Mountain.

Bucksport has its witch’s foot.

Prospect has its big foot.

Now Bangor may be next to join the list of towns with offbeat tourist attractions.

Sometime in May, Arthur Brazeau, 62, of Bangor drove from his home on Union Street to Lover’s Leap Park, off Valley Avenue, to watch hawks and eagles.

“I happened to pull over and park and I looked over and said, ‘That looks like the Old Man in the Mountain,’” he said Friday morning.

Looking east toward downtown Bangor, the 4-foot-tall rock formation, beginning about seven feet up the rock bluff on the side of the road, looks like an old man’s face with a white quartz stripe, resembling a scar, running from brow to chin.

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The face, which can only be seen in profile when facing east, seems to gaze solemnly toward Lover’s Leap, a cliff that local legend holds to be the site where an American Indian woman and her settler lover jumped to their deaths into Kenduskeag Stream because her chieftain father wouldn’t let them marry.

“It does look like an Indian almost,” Brazeau said of the face.

“The guy’s overlooking where his daughter jumped off or something.”

Brazeau, who said he had never heard of anybody else noticing the Old Man of the Kenduskeag, would like to see the city develop the site into a tourist attraction.

“If the city cleans the brush [from in front of the ledge] then it will be more of an attraction,” he said. “I think it will bring in some people to bring money into the area.”

Brazeau said he has tried to garner interest from the Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Bangor Convention and Visitors Bureau, who in turn directed him to City Hall.

“I have heard from this gentleman,” said Bangor Mayor Gerry Palmer.

Palmer said he has not yet gone down to the area to look for The Man, but said he has “never seen a man in the mountain down there.”

Palmer said the city has been busy with other projects. If the site ends up being what Brazeau says it is, they will consider developing it into a tourist attraction.

“We certainly will take a look in it,” sometime after the American Folk Festival, he said. “I might take the city engineer with me.”

Theresa Lawlor of Bangor, who was jogging along the stream on Friday morning, had never noticed the face before.

At first glance, she didn’t see it, though she eventually agreed the rock did resemble a man’s face. “If you probably stared at it for a long time” you could see it, she said.

Tracy Willette, director of Bangor Parks and Recreation, said no one at his office had heard of the rock formation.

“We’ll go down and take a look at that,” he said. “At the very least, if it is indeed something that’s recognizable, we would want to put some signage up.

“What’s surprising is, after 40 some-odd canoe races no one has noticed that before,” Willette said.

Brazeau said he always has had a good imagination. As a child, he would imagine shapes in clouds.

“Being a Native American, I have that vision,” he said outside his home.

He pointed to a rock by the flagpole in the yard of his apartment complex. “That rock looks like a buffalo,” he said.

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Comments
24 comments on this item
On 8/14/09 at 11:05 PM, Kevin_of_Bangor wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I'm sure from some angles it does not but from those pictures. Yes, it does look like a face but the human mind can make it see what it wants to believe. People find strange images of people in weird things all the time because they want to believe that what they are seeing is truly there. We know how certain things are supposed to look and we can trick our minds into believing something is there when it is not.

The pics are cool and I can make out what would appear to be a face but my brain knows what a face looks like so it is easy for me to state that it looks like a face. If you told me it was something my brain has never seen, I might not see it. We also have to remember that shadows and light at certain times make things appear to us but take away those factors, the image goes away.

From the article: Brazeau said he always has had a good imagination. As a child, he would imagine shapes in clouds.

“Being a Native American, I have that vision,” he said outside his home.

This man has a very active imagination. I can look at the clouds and see things that my brain has on file but the whole vision stuff. I'm calling BS on that one. Neat pictures but again. I know what a face looks like as does everyone else. You can trick your brain into thinking something is there when it is not if you desire to do so.

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On 8/15/09 at 12:25 AM, ryanrrobbins wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

This is a non-story...

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On 8/15/09 at 12:37 AM, Kevin_of_Bangor wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Because you say it is not one? You don't even understand what an Idiom is.

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On 8/15/09 at 1:12 AM, Cre8RoyalPalm wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Dreamers and schemers. Kevin...you are right on-point. Took the words right out of my brain. Thanks for the comment.

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On 8/15/09 at 6:38 AM, ourfearlessbaldeagle wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

theres a lot of times that a rock looks like a person

but its still a rock

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On 8/15/09 at 6:46 AM, DaddyBiggs wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

This is too eerie! That looks just like my ex wife!

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On 8/15/09 at 9:01 AM, know_it_all wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Excellent job Arthur. That's a great find!

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On 8/15/09 at 9:28 AM, ydnar723 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Looking at the night and day pictures the rock looks different, I have to agree this is just a rock. Perhaps it almost looks like a face, but this is one of those concepts where everyone sees something different. The jogger never noticed the face before until it was pointed out to her, her mind allowed her to see it as a face otherwise her jog would have been just that. How many times has one looked at a cloud and thought it looked like a sheep, you point it out to the person next to you who sees nothing. You keep pointing it out that it is a sheep and 9 out of 10 times, they agree with you BUT had you not done that, it would have been just a cloud. The jogger had to agree "after looking at it for a while"

Put people down there and have them walk around and look around who know nothing about the face believed to be on this rock and until someone points it out over and over, they won't see much, especially if thy don't use their imagination for long....especially with a race that has happened for many years nobody pointed this out. A case of an imagination.

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On 8/15/09 at 9:58 AM, Gopher wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

From the picture, I'd say the cliff face does look like a man's face, about as much as the Old Man of the Mountain DID. I've hiked that trail before but I've been busy watching my footing and viewing the Kenduskeag. Guess I'll have to go back and look for it. As for canoe racers seeing it, they have other things to watch out for and this must be well above water level.

Don't knock the ability to recognize images like this (although I have no time for publicity stunts like the Virgin Mary in French Toast). It's a childlike trait that many of us lose as we get older (and wiser???).

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On 8/15/09 at 10:44 AM, JJacob wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Good gawd! This rock face is the spitting image of Nancy Peolsi ! Check out the rigor mortised, staring eyes! They haunt me!

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On 8/15/09 at 11:19 AM, Northwoods_Maine wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Wow, and I thought the outline of the Blessed Virgin Mary that formed in my compost pile was going to be the next big Bangor tourist attraction!

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On 8/15/09 at 11:30 AM, Pozole wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

George Washington with Lincoln's beard? ?

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On 8/15/09 at 12:01 PM, dtmgdad wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Being next to the road, this rock formation was probably due to some blasting that was done to put the road in. Thats how the foot in the ledge appears in Prospect.

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On 8/15/09 at 12:50 PM, HippyKicker wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

JJacob - Right on.

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On 8/15/09 at 1:04 PM, ClydeDurp wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It looks like a side view of the Gorton's Fisherman!!!

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On 8/15/09 at 1:14 PM, ourfearlessbaldeagle wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

THATS THE GORTON'S FISHER MAAAAAAAAAAYAN

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On 8/15/09 at 1:34 PM, cfournNH wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

the other rocks must be sooo jealous.

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On 8/15/09 at 7:42 PM, horsepucky wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Why not enhance the image to look like John Baldacci and start our own Mt. Rushmore?

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On 8/15/09 at 9:24 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I see a gorilla...

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On 8/16/09 at 12:00 AM, BGuiou wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Looks like Optimus Prime

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On 8/16/09 at 6:19 AM, overseasmaniac wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Wow!!! I can't believe it as it is truly a revelation!!! I never saw that before and I have to say that ..... it REALLY is a rock!!!!

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On 8/16/09 at 2:03 PM, begformercy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Slowwwwwwwwwww news day in Bangor, huh?

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On 8/16/09 at 2:56 PM, lovetheBDN wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

can someone give me directions to the "big foot" in prospect?? Thanks

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On 8/16/09 at 3:03 PM, donnelly wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I dont see it....

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