FALL RIVER — At 58 feet around and an estimated 140 tons, Fall River’s Rolling Rock at County Street and Eastern Avenue is hard to miss when driving by.
Once upon a time, it was also literally hard to miss when driving by, since it stuck out into the street. In the early days of the automobile in Fall River, the Rolling Rock was considered a traffic hazard, a “menace,” a “freak of nature,” a “lump of petrified mud.” Neighbors wanted to drag it away somewhere else, or blow it up with dynamite to get rid of it.
Though it’s now an icon of the city and a handy landmark, the Rolling Rock wasn’t always thought of so fondly. How did it get here, and why has it been preserved? Let’s take a look.
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The enormous puddingstone — a “conglomerate,” to be fancy — sits poised upon a flat base of granite, looking like one good shove might knock it off. It’s noted on maps as early as 1800, but Edward Hitchcock of Amherst College first studied it in 1830, while passing through town on a geological survey trip across the state.