Boulder that provoked controversy removed from UW-Madison campus
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Under dappled sunlight filtering through the trees of Observatory Hill Friday morning, workers using a crane removed a large boulder from the UW-Madison campus that had become for many a painful symbol of the university’s racist past.
Chamberlin Rock, named for former university president and geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, was at least once referred to as a “n——-head” rock in a 1925 Wisconsin State Journal story . University historians have not found any other time that the slur was used.
But the Ku Klux Klan was active on campus during that time. And the recent rediscovery of that long-ago news article prompted a reevaluation of an object that not only helped tell the story of the state’s geologic history but also served as a daily reminder of a more recent troubling past.
The boulder is a rare, large example of a pre-Cambrian-era glacial erratic that experts say is likely over 2 billion years old. It was previously estimated to have weighed up to 70 tons, but an updated measurement from the removal places the boulder at 42 tons — the equivalent of about two fully loaded coach buses.
The rock will be placed on publicly accessible university-owned land southeast of Madison near Lake Kegonsa, where it will continue to be used for educational purposes by the geoscience department.
“Removing the rock as a monument in a prominent location prevents further harm to our community while preserving the rock’s educational research value for our current and future students,” said Gary Brown, the university’s director of campus planning and landscape architecture.
Crews began the process of removing the rock just before 7 a.m. Friday, securing it with straps and lifting it with a crane before moving it onto a flatbed truck. Brown said the estimated cost of removal is less than $50,000, funded by private donations.
The Black Student Union and Wunk Sheek, an Indigenous student organization on campus, led the campaign to remove the rock last summer. The Campus Planning Commission, following a presentation from both student groups, recommended the proposal for removal to UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank last November.
Juliana Bennett, a UW-Madison senior who serves as the campus representative on the Madison City Council, said removing the rock signaled a small step toward a more inclusive campus.
“This moment is about the students, past and present, that relentlessly advocated for the removal of this racist monument,” she said. “Now is a moment for all of us BIPOC students to breathe a sigh of relief, to be proud of our endurance, and to begin healing.”
Blank approved the proposal recommendation in January, but the Wisconsin Historical Society needed to sign off on the rock’s removal because it was located near a Native American burial site.
The Wisconsin Historical Society gave the removal the green light last week, Brown said.
“The Wisconsin Historical Society and the tribes support the placement of the important artifact on university-owned land,” Kara O’Keefe, a WHS spokesperson, said in an email to the State Journal. “Its placement does not cause an adverse impact on any cultural or historical resources.”
A tribal preservation officer, a Wisconsin Historical Society representative and a contract archaeologist for the university were present at the removal to ensure moving the rock did not damage the burial site and to preliminarily examine the area below the rock.
This is the first time the rock has been moved in nearly a century since it was dug up to be studied. In 1925, it was winched out of the hill using steel cables and horses over the course of three days, eventually rolled a few feet to where it has stood as a monument for Chamberlin for nearly a century.
Kenneth Owens, a Madison resident of 20 years, said he was glad to see the rock go, calling it a positive ending for the boulder’s story.
“It’s not the rock’s fault that it got that terrible and unfortunate nickname,” he said. “But the fact that it’s ... being moved shows that the world is getting a little better today.”
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I chose that quote from the article on purpose. I’m trying wrap my head around why the fuck this massive rock needed to be moved. For fuck sakes, so somebody once nicknamed with a slur - so find a new name!! This is a prime example why wokeism is an anchor around the left’s neck. The same week that a climate change study concludes that our situation is way more dire than we suspected, these idiots are burning enough fossil fuel to move a 42 ton boulder because of its one-time nickname. Meanwhile, black people everywhere will continue to call each other by that same nickname as a term of endearment. Maybe we deserve to go extinct.
Don't be surprised when Brazil nuts get ostracized because of their old nickname.
Pretty much my thoughts. It's a rock. It didn't name itself that horrible name.
And $50k would have made for a nice scholarship for some needy kid.
Nah, to hell with some kid, taking 18-21 hours, with labs, trying to get hours at work to pay for tuition, rent, bills, etc. They did the right thing by moving the 42 ton boulder. Now the campus is more inclusive. Fucking rocks...you have to watch out for those bastards, especially the 42 ton variety that someone a century ago referred to in a derogatory way, but is otherwise known by the name of the former pres. of the university. Sneaky bastards.
With everything else going on in this country, some people just have nothing better to complain about.
If my worst worry was a rock that one person gave a racist name almost 100 years ago, i'd really be king shit on turd island that's for sure.
I remember that as a kid
"This is a prime example why wokeism is an anchor around the left’s neck."
Yep, while we sit and laugh at these virtue signaling nitwits
Could have renamed it Chamberlin Rock.
Could have renamed it Chamberlin Rock.
That’s what confuses me. According to the article that is what it’s name is. But apparently some guy that matters to nobody called it something else once. This could have been an article in The Onion.
Lol…stories like this really drive home how absurd this moral panic is. People in the future are going to laugh their asses off at how absurd this generation is, and the lengths they will go to be oppressed.
One mention in a paper 100 years ago and suddenly it can’t be tolerated.
I have to agree here. As another example, today I saw several outlets publish articles about some unidentified fan at a Rockies / Marlins baseball game who repeatedly called out the N word four times while a black player was at bat. Yes, that is disgraceful - if that’s what happened! But by afternoon more articles were published to clarify that after some investigation it was determined that the fan was shouting “Dinger!”, who is the Rockies mascot, to try and get his attention for a photo. Oy-vey. This knee jerk reactionary outrage over a word that many black people use on themselves is out of control.
Between this rock fiasco and the hysteria over the "dinger" incident in Colorado, it shows how desperate some are to find examples of racism, somewhere, anywhere. Some people are so invested the "Racism is everywhere" narrative that they seem upset that they can't find enough actual incidents of racism, so they resort to hyping made up ones to justify their obsession.
They don't have Trump to obsess over daily, at least not front and center. So they have to get even more creative with their PC/Woke nonsense.
Gold stars for creatively though .... all around ....
What a waste of money
What "harm"? It's been there for over a century without harming anyone! /SMH
For some of ignorant and clueless few, simply because it's there!
The boulder is a rare, large example of a pre-Cambrian-era glacial erratic that experts say is likely over 2 billion years old.
Here in Michigan, about straight east of Madison, we have been unearthing granite boulders here that look to be the same type of as shown in the picture, some gray-black, orange-red, dark green, and one 22 ton white quartz we have sitting in the front yard. It took our 50 ton machine to lift it and place it a half mile from where we found it. Excuse me, what was the topic again?
So some nobody ignoramus in the past nicknamed a rock with racist slur, and that causes yet another ridiculous overreaction among the oh so sensitive Americans. Of course, remove the rock, but allow the campus BDS group to thrive, intimidating Jewish students, supporting BDS and other antisemitic and Israel-bashing causes. What's next? Will the Ford Motor Company be forced to change its name because Henry fraternized with the Nazis? Will Americans be forbidden from eating Chinese food because it might make them actually LIKE China? How about no more drinking your tea and coffee from china cups, or flying kites or setting off fireworks or even eating with a fork? And Americans not being able to use gunpowder for their bullets? THAT'LL be the day, eh?
Fraternized with Nazi's and was virulently anti semitic!
Sounds about right for Madison Wisconsin.
A national hub for academically driven political correctness and woke mentality.
Is that academically driven or academically challenged?
Lol .... yes.
I really meant to say academia, as in driven by some College Prof who thinks they are next coming of Christ.
Lord knows we had to deal with our share of pricks like that even back in the 80's
Those who can .... do. Those who can't .... teach.