Organizers unveiled a $4.8 million plan yesterday for an interactive memorial to commemorate the Old Man of the Mountain, which will include a gateway dedicated to the Old Man's caretakers, a walking path along the site where millions of people went to look at him and platforms to view two re-creations of the legendary profile.

The quarter-mile pathway will lead visitors from the existing Old Man of the Mountain museum near the base of Cannon Mountain, through the gateway and to a viewing platform that overlooks five massive granite stones. When viewed from the platform, the stones line up to create the illusion of a complete profile of the Old Man.

The biggest stone - 20 feet tall and nearly 180 tons - will be the largest stone ever quarried in North America, although still half the size of the original Old Man, who fell from a cliff in Franconia Notch State Park on May 3, 2003.

The project designers, Ron Magers and Shelly Bradbury of Essex, Mass., were screened twice by an independent jury of New Hampshire residents and artists before being selected from 40 applicants.

"It was all about bringing back the experience that was lost," Magers said. "That was our goal, and I think we did it."

Past the stones, a new park at the edge of Profile Lake will provide another viewing area where visitors may hold up "profilers" - cannon-like steel beams with bumpy edges that, when lined up with the viewer's eyesight, merge together to create the Old Man's profile. When the profilers are pointed up and lined up with the cliff, viewers should be able to "see" the outline of the Old Man's face where it used to be, and at the same size and scale.

The winning 18-foot scale model was on display at the State Library in Concord yesterday, where representatives from the nonprofit Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund and the state Department of Resources and Economic Development announced the project plans.

"We really went with something that has the 'wow' factor," Fund Chairwoman Maura Weston said. "The Old Man of the Mountain has been the state symbol. You can't re-create him, and yet you need something in this state that really reflects what he's about."

Weston said she hopes the project will be complete in time for a dedication on the fifth anniversary of the Old Man's fall in May 2008. That would require construction to start sometime this spring, but Weston said the Legacy Fund needs to secure funding before it can begin.

The Executive Council approved a private-public partnership yesterday between the nonprofit Legacy Fund and the New Hampshire Department of Parks and Recreation, allowing the fund to raise money and oversee construction and installation of the memorial, which the department will eventually own.

Weston said donors have already pledged more than $800,000 to the project, and organizers hope businesses and state residents will contribute as well. George Bald, commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development, said the state plans to help pay for the project, but he did not know how much the department will contribute.

Dick Hamilton, chairman of the department's advisory board and former CEO of the White Mountains Attractions Association, estimated that 3 million people drove past the Old Man each year. He said project organizers hope the memorial could attract more than a half-million visitors each year.

The memorial's platforms, benches and gateway columns will be sculpted from granite from Swenson Granite in Concord. Granite for the five main stones, however, will come from a quarry in Barre, Vt., that is affiliated with Swenson.

The Vermont quarry is the only one in North America with the capacity to lift such a high-quality stone large enough for the project, Kurt Swenson said yesterday. The company also plans to build a special truck to transport the stones, which range in weight from 83 tons to 118 tons.

Swenson said he was delighted to participate in the project. His company first offered to help in 2003, when he proposed rebuilding the Old Man, a task he quickly realized was too expensive and too dangerous to attempt, he said.

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