The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-02
HUGE ROCK OF MYSTERY.
Largest BOwIder in the World Puzzles
Scientists in Connecticut.

New York Herald.
The Connecticut Legislature has been
considering the purchase by the State of
Cochegan rock, located midway between
New London and Norwich. and said by
many persons to be the largest bOWlder in
the United States. II is eighty feet long.
s~eVenty-eight feet high, contains about sew
enty thousand cubic feet of stone and is
estimated to weigh ten thousand tons. 1t is
unquestionably a relic of the glacial period,
and was deposited in its present resting
place very many centuries ago fan,o,,s
stamping ground for the geologist and
paleontologist. Almost everybody who is at
all familiar with ancient birds and beasts
remembers what is known to science as the
Connecticut sandstone footprints, footprints
of birds so gigantic that it appalls one to
think what they must have been like. Es-
pecially around MontVille are there many
mute evidences of the glacial period, the
stone of Cochegan being the most notable.
This stone has been studied by the most
famous biologists of the United States, but
none of them has ever been. able to state
with accuracy just what variety it is. The
strangest feature is that in appearance and
in grain it is totally unlike any other stone
found in Connecticut or New England, this
lack of resemblance extending to other and
smaller boWlders, which were also evidently
deposited on Connecticut soil by glaciers.
What is more, biologists. VINO nave eX-
plored the region of the far North declare
that they have never seen any stone which
bore any resemblance in appearance or
texture to the Cochegan wonder.
Indian tradition says this stone was for
centuries used as a council block by the red
men of Connecticut. The first white man
to own the land upon which il stands was
Samuel Chapman, and he, in 1862, sold 1t to
Joshua Baker. 1t has changed owners sew
eral times since then. its present proprietor
being Alexander Atchison.
This powder almost unquestionably, say
the scientists, originally formed part of
some great formation OF rock IN a portion
Of the American continent so far north that
it has never been reached by civilized man,
and thus we are unablet to compare 1t with
anything of a like nature.
The surface of the boWlder, as smooth IN
some portions as if IL had been operated
on by a prehistoric worker in stone,
shows fantistic shapes and traces. Many
persons have supposed that all this was
the result of the storms OF centuries beat
ing upon it. Careful examination proves,
however, that these factors had little to do
with the present appearance of the bowlder.
To the scientific eye the marks of the
glacier are clear and distinct. 1t is the ice
that made the strange. carving and pro-
duced the almost polished surface. Just
how far the rock extends into the ground
has never been ascertained.
Cochegan rock stands to-day almost at
the summit of a hill that slopes in grace
full contour TO the River Thames. Nature
has garlanded its rough surface with flow
ers and creeping vines. Around it are
grouped great trees, some of which have
6aen neighbors for a century at least. AT
a little distance from II, on this same hill
side, are smaller rocks which were deposit
ed here by the same glacier that brought
the giant boWlder from its far away home.
One of the greatest geological curtosittes of
the country. it forms the one pebble on the
beach of science over which the modern
geologist loves to ponder.