Always pronounced so that its capital letters are audible, The Rock has been a Lawrence icon, above and below ground, for over 100 years. During a geology field trip to Mosquito Hill near New London, Wisconsin, in 1895, members of the senior class noticed a boulder that they thought would make a fine souvenir of the occasion. Arranging to have it transported to Appleton by dray and railroad flatcar, they carved "Class of 1895" upon it and set it in front of Stephenson Hall of Science (photo at left).
And there it stayed -- for awhile. Over the years, moving The Rock became a student pastime of ever-larger proportion. Automobile tow trucks would appear in the night, and by dawn The Rock, now painted quite regularly in every imaginable color and pattern, would have found a new spot. In 1957, it appeared perched precariously on the roof ledge of Stephenson, but that turned out to be an impostor Rock made of papier-mache.
It fell to the Class of 1967 to bring The Rock to its lowest level. Wearing sweatshirts that read "The Rock. We Saw. We Took. We Kept," Plantz Hall residents in 1964 buried the big boulder near their residence hall.
And there it stayed -- for 19 years. On the occasion of their 15th reunion in 1983, members of the Class of '67 (wearing shirts that said "The Rock. We Saw. We Took. We Kept. We Returned.") hired a crane from the P. G. Miron Construction Company to raise The Rock back to ground level.
Truth to tell, there are almost as many Rock stories as there are urban legends, and if you don't like the ones we've told, feel free to make up your own. After all, there are people who will look you straight in the eye and tell you they once took The Rock to Neenah. Who knows? Maybe they did.