Franklin County has its own mountain man
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

WILTON – Mary E. Dow finds “Chief Wilton” much more handsome than New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain ever was.

The Old Man crumbled last week, apparently a victim of time and erosion.

Dow has seen the Wilton profile protruding from a ledge formation along Route 2 for “years and years and years.” This “Wilton warrior,” known by locals as “the Indian head,” should be better known, said Dow of Livermore.

Norman Haggan, a division engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the profile was formed when the ledge was blasted to put Route 2 through the town in 1960.

“We went in to build a road, not a ‘Wilton warrior,'” Haggan said.

He said he remembered thinking that this was the nearest thing “we had to the Old Man of the Mountain.”

Dow said she had been driving down the road one day, and she saw it.

“I take pictures; I’m always looking,” Dow said.

She went to the Town Office back then and told the late John Donald, who was town manager at the time, that the profile should be better publicized.

“I thought it would be an attraction to the town,” she said. But nothing came of it, she added.

The day she took the picture several years ago, she said, the clouds were just right and the features stood out.

Dow said the details etched in the granite of the Wilton Warrior are much clearer, depicting a younger profile, than the Old Man.

“You can even see his Adam’s apple,” Dow said. “He looks to be a type of Indian with a Mohawk.” He can be seen coming and going,” she said. “It’s just a marvelous thing.”

Wilton Town Clerk Linda Jellison said she had a post card at home that featured the “Indian head.”

After the blasting to build new Route 2, Jellison said, people started becoming aware of the profile.

“I just feel with his being known it would be a real attraction to the area,” Dow said. “He should be better known, a landmark; he should be a famous landmark.”

dperry@sunjournal.com