900lb Viewing Stone

Several years ago I posted this stone on the old IBC. At that time I wanted to know how people thought I should display this stone. Now several years later I would like to share some the story. I first saw this type of stone in the collection of Pat Coen sometime during the 90's. In 2001 I was in Houston, TX and visited a stone yard with my brother. There we found a lot of this stone:) including some very large pieces that I was just immediately drawn to. Turns out it was a special order for a swimming pool/landscape project...the project used over 50 tons of this stone!!! I only saw pictures but there were some amazing pieces...the stone left on the lot was what wasn't used in the project. After much personal debate I decided to go for it and I purchased this stone (881lbs) and an additional ton of smaller pieces. The really crazy part was I shipped it halfway across the US to my home in South Carolina. Once it arrived I had to let my local stone yard hold onto to it for a couple of years while I got reestablished after a divorce.

Finally in 2005 it was delivered to my garden... (its amazing how much the garden has matured in 5 short years)


At the time I did not have a good plan for how to display the stone and as such threw together something at the last minute using cinder blocks and discs of wood cut from a large pine tree.



Here it is 3 years later in Spring of 2008...


Early this year the inevitable happened...the wood rotted and the rock began to collapse...


I had always wanted to raise this stone so that its detail could more easily be seen but I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that task:)
So, after so careful thought and a little experimenting here is what I did...


After everything was ready I began to lift it...

a little higher...

As we all know nothing ever goes exactly right the first time:) After lifting the stone a second time this is what I finally ended up with..

The table was created from a large piece of blue flagstone and three chimney liners. Someday I may try to improve the angle the stone is sitting but for now I am very happy to have it on a better display table.

Thanks,
John

That is a sweet looking rawk!!!!