here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!
Stratoscope 21 hours ago [-]
That is a wonderful article!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
cr125rider 5 hours ago [-]
Man this guy found his life’s calling. Love to see it.
elcritch 3 hours ago [-]
I love the ambiguity as to whether his mom wants the rocks dropped off in her yard or not. ;)
mathgenius 3 hours ago [-]
They should name it after this guy, the Pitelka rock.
xnx 7 hours ago [-]
That rock couldn't have been found by a better guy.
Bluestein 5 hours ago [-]
Even a rock has a soulmate! Not I.- /s
ComputerGuru 6 hours ago [-]
TFA has a picture as well; just scroll down.
cmrx64 4 hours ago [-]
I did but honestly didn’t see it. My connection was struggle to load all the billions of ads.
I was going to suggest just this! I love Boaty McBoatface.
But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock
aceazzameen 7 hours ago [-]
Can have the best of both worlds.
Da Rocky McRockface
tanseydavid 6 hours ago [-]
Rocky McRockface is the perfect name and gets my vote.
MegaDeKay 5 hours ago [-]
Came here with that same name in mind. It would be a stone cold crime if that wasn't picked.
dmd 3 hours ago [-]
Gneiss!
senectus1 4 hours ago [-]
Missed opportunity to call it "Rocky Bouldoa"
Mountain_Skies 3 hours ago [-]
That would be a slam dunk winner if it was the airport in Philadelphia.
underdeserver 5 hours ago [-]
I wonder if there'll be an episode of Hello Internet on it.
tjwebbnorfolk 6 hours ago [-]
I think this is the only valid name
Stratoscope 1 days ago [-]
Here are the name finalists:
• Sweet Stone Chicago
• No ORDinary Rock
• Chicago Rocks
• O'Rock
• Orchard Rock
• Da Rock
"No ORDinary Rock" and "Orchard Rock" are the winners for me. They both pay tribute to how O'Hare got its IATA airport code in the 1940s, when it was called Orchard Field.
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
swingandamiss 6 hours ago [-]
I like "Orchard Rock" because it's not some stupid reddit'ism.
lbriner 7 hours ago [-]
Just call it "Dwayne Johnson"?
Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.
adzm 5 hours ago [-]
Naming things after living people is bad luck
robotnikman 6 hours ago [-]
I like 'Da Rock' because it reminds me of da orks from Warhammer 40K
jhatax 9 hours ago [-]
Surprised to see `ExtraORDinary Rock` missing => 50-tons, that's got to meet the bar for extraordinary.
phlakaton 4 hours ago [-]
So they completely ignored the discoverer's suggestion. Humbug.
wpm 5 hours ago [-]
Shakin my damn head where is "Rock and Roll McDonald"
deepspace 6 hours ago [-]
How is 'BDU' not the top choice?
whycome 9 hours ago [-]
Wish I saw some of the larger list. This still seems weak.
ORD as an acronym? O Rock D
O’Hare Rock Dolostone
O’Hare Runway Dolomite
Rocky.
Da Dolo
jhatax 5 hours ago [-]
O Rock Damn.
toddmorey 6 hours ago [-]
Beanie’s Baby
RaftPeople 8 hours ago [-]
Ditka
anonymousDan 8 hours ago [-]
I like it. Ditka Rock has a certain ring to it.
JoeAltmaier 9 hours ago [-]
"Mother's Love"
Because, we so often take it for granite.
bell-cot 7 hours ago [-]
[dead]
syspec 6 hours ago [-]
Interesting, the construction worker who found is said he never found one that big in all his years working in the field.
I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?
bcaulfield 1 days ago [-]
Should name it Dwayne Johnson and never explain further.
cestith 13 hours ago [-]
Or Rudy Ray Moore.
thehappypm 6 hours ago [-]
The pioneers used to ride those babies for miles!
fuzzfactor 3 hours ago [-]
Boulderdash!
toddmorey 6 hours ago [-]
“I am going to show you where on earth in the future we will find the biggest rock: Space.”
In chicagoland, yes. For someone who moved there from California, it was strange that rocks hardly larger than a human warranted school field trips and plaques. Perhaps it is geologically cool, but I was unimpressed as a 6th grader. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53236492797_60069bde90_b...
waltbosz 7 hours ago [-]
I thought the same thing. My back yard is full of huge rocks. Nothing quite that large, maybe 1/3 of that size. A few doors down there is a boulder twice as big as the O'Hare one.
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
hoppyhoppy2 8 hours ago [-]
Dunno, but I haven't ever come across one on my property.
quickthrowman 4 hours ago [-]
In an area that was covered by a glacier in the last 20k years, yes.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
Yizahi 8 hours ago [-]
Medium-rare I would guess
fuzzfactor 3 hours ago [-]
Well-done, I must say.
tptacek 8 hours ago [-]
Not from the look of it.
lukeify 8 hours ago [-]
O’Hareball!
wewewedxfgdf 37 minutes ago [-]
Biggie.
fortran77 5 hours ago [-]
I thought a 50 ton boulder would be bigger!
4 hours ago [-]
PyWoody 8 hours ago [-]
If you're ever in the area of Madison, NH and have absolutely nothing else to do, the Madison Boulder is kinda neat. [0] It's a little bigger at about 5k tons.
With New Hampshire mentioned, I must make mention of one glorious boulder that sits alongside Rumney's Quincy Road[0]. This is worth checking out if you're visiting the Plymouth area. Street View doesn't do it justice.
I was going to suggest something in that vein, perhaps "a giant boulder the size of a large boulder" to distinguish it from its Coloradan cousin.
wffurr 8 hours ago [-]
Glad they included a video of moving it. 50 tons is close to the limit of a typical boom crane.
jsd1982 2 hours ago [-]
The Boulder. No Avatar references yet?
karlkloss 21 hours ago [-]
Rocky McRockface
whycome 9 hours ago [-]
When Toronto had to name their team, I’m sure that the success of Jurassic Park helped the finalist (Raptors) win. I’m surprised “Rocky” didn’t make a finalist here (via Project Hail Mary).
Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.
O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite
8 hours ago [-]
JoeAltmaier 9 hours ago [-]
Pictures or it didn't happen?
markstos 5 hours ago [-]
O'Bollard.
dbcurtis 7 hours ago [-]
Years ago, a company that I worked for had a huge boulder in the parking lot area that had simply been built around. At some point, facilities decided they were going to remove the boulder. Employees printed up some tee shirts that said "Save the BFR". Because, you know, it was a big rock.
mikewarot 21 hours ago [-]
Tangent time: I've got a smaller one in my yard, and I've got a set of feathers and wedges to avoid having to dig it all up at once. Here's a video of someone using feathers and wedges to split granite.
What means "prehistoric boulder", are not essentially all boulders prehistoric? I just don't know what a historic boulder would even mean. Something in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
lifeisstillgood 7 hours ago [-]
“Deep Crust” surely?
pvaldes 8 hours ago [-]
Stonehangar, of course
shmilia 9 hours ago [-]
Bean
mrlonglong 8 hours ago [-]
Bouldery McBoulderface.
futuresoonpast 6 hours ago [-]
Rocky, obvs.
ashton314 9 hours ago [-]
Peewee Pebblestone
wewewedxfgdf 9 hours ago [-]
Big Boy Boulder
contingencies 8 hours ago [-]
As an Australian aware of Chicago's Irish heritage and the implied weight balancing our antipodean clime, I'd suggest "Tip O'Dea".
There's something about finding huge rocks in the ground while digging that makes you just want to take them out and like, use them for something? The last one I found I had to make myself leave it there (well I moved it over a foot so a pipe didn't have to go around it). Like no, it has sat here for thousands of years just fine, it can keep sitting. Glad to hear it applies to 50 ton ones, as well.
acomjean 23 hours ago [-]
In New England they made stone walls out of them. Of course most where smallish
Oh sure, I'm definitely familiar with those. The weird ones are in forests, a reminder that an area used to be clear and then was left to grow back.
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
I dont get it. Does he have some association with large rocks or something?
tptacek 8 hours ago [-]
Colbert is not a Chicago figure. You'd have to remind the median Chicagoan who knows who he is that he ever spent time here. You might just as easily name it after Bob Odenkirk.
dhosek 5 hours ago [-]
And at least Odenkirk sounds like he’s from Chicago (because he is). Colbert’s time in Chicago was a short part of his life.
tptacek 5 hours ago [-]
Berwyn, technically! Our neck of the woods. :)
dhosek 1 hours ago [-]
He grew up in Naperville. Wikipedia says he was born in Berwyn, which I assume just means he was born at McNeal, but I don’t think he ever lived there or there’d be a bigger deal made of it by the local gentry. But that voice is hardcore inner suburbs/southwest side. I had no difficulty believing Jimmy McGill grew up in Cicero.
Rendered at 03:45:48 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
[0]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652
But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock
Da Rocky McRockface
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.
ORD as an acronym? O Rock D
O’Hare Rock Dolostone O’Hare Runway Dolomite
Rocky.
Da Dolo
Because, we so often take it for granite.
I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?
https://youtu.be/aO0TUI9r-So?si=7fNwDvf86GpVFxDR
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Boulder
[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/L4EcqopjLqvX9HQMA
TIL there's something called a short ton.
https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/
Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.
O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite
https://youtu.be/s7_z-SGxUAs?si=vUKYBWYvG7nncszd&t=924
PS. If visiting Chicago check out the Lincoln Park Conservatory, an amazing historic plant collection with one of the world's best ferneries, very close to downtown. https://www.lincolnparkconservancy.org/projects/conservatory...
https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/hist...
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_The_Colbert...