short fat guy online

    Speaking of my rock collection, here are a few more samples. These aren’t from my States of the Union collection, these are just rocks with interesting shapes. They come mainly from Mackinac Island and also Presque Isle park in Marquette.

The Moccasin

    This next one had a perfect hole bored into its larger end. The debate was whether this hole was caused by erosion, or if it was man-made and this was some kind of drinking vessel.

The Bone-shape

    Here’s another rock with perfectly bored holes. I used to call it the “pre-historic bowling ball” but others have said it might be a weapon. Those indentations might be used to affix the rock to a handle, to make a club.

Pre-Historic Bowling Ball

    This, as far as I can recall was one of my earliest finds. The little tongue of rock at the top looked like a beak, so I painted the rock to make it look like a Wise Old Owl. I not only painted the beak and gave the bird orange eyes, I even painted the rock gray. Most of it wore off, but the eyes are still there.

Wise Old Owl

    Another early find. The shape of it originally made me think of a man with a large nose; and the crack above the nose looked like a closed eye. I named it The Sleeper (or the Snorer). But later on, the shape of the rock and the smoothness of the lines reminded me of a sculpture of the Madonna and Child. Just like an optical illusion, I can see both of those impressions now.

The Sleeper / The Blessed Mother

    For quite a while, every year I would be able to go up to Mackinac Island for our Summer vacation. Mackinac’s shoreline is lined with limestone rocks which often are formed into recognizable shapes (and their flatness and smoothness make them excellent skipping stones). After spotting a few applicable stones, I soon began trying to amass a rock collection in the shape of the United States. It was my goal, one day, to display that collection when I was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
    I never did make that goal, and I only found a half dozen or so stones which had worthwhile likenesses. A few of the rocks are still lying around in the backyard, and I saw them again when I was out raking leaves the other day. One of my greatest finds was Massachsetts, complete with the little curl that forms Massachusetts Bay. Sadly I don’t know where that rock is. But here are a few finds that are still around.

Texas  …Yeah, I know. A stretch. Upside down, can also double as Arkansas maybe.

Nebraska. Kinda.

California