Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by Stratoscope on Sunday October 18, 2026 @10:24PM
(#50147657)
Here are the name finalists:
• Sweet Stone Chicago
• No ORDinary Rock
• Chicago Rocks
• O'Rock
• Orchard Rock
• Da Rock
"No ORDinary Rock" and "Orchard Rock" are the winners for me. They both pay tribute to how O'Hare got its IATA airport code in the 1940s, when it was called Orchard Field.
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by Stratoscope on Monday October 19, 2026 @02:45AM
(#50149133)
That is a wonderful article!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by MisterTea on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @10:43AM
(#50167201)
I know a lot of people who live in apartments but have a collection, usually classic computers, stored in their parents house. Hell, I was just talking to a guy few weeks ago who was lamenting how his parents threw out his "junk" pdp11 years ago.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by mindslight on Sunday October 18, 2026 @11:51PM
(#50148184)
There's something about finding huge rocks in the ground while digging that makes you just want to take them out and like, use them for something? The last one I found I had to make myself leave it there (well I moved it over a foot so a pipe didn't have to go around it). Like no, it has sat here for thousands of years just fine, it can keep sitting. Glad to hear it applies to 50 ton ones, as well.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by mindslight on Monday October 19, 2026 @12:16PM
(#50154240)
Oh sure, I'm definitely familiar with those. The weird ones are in forests, a reminder that an area used to be clear and then was left to grow back.
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by mikewarot on Monday October 19, 2026 @03:12AM
(#50149303)
Tangent time: I've got a smaller one in my yard, and I've got a set of feathers and wedges to avoid having to dig it all up at once. Here's a video of someone using feathers and wedges to split granite.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by whycome on Monday October 19, 2026 @03:06PM
(#50156575)
When Toronto had to name their team, I’m sure that the success of Jurassic Park helped the finalist (Raptors) win. I’m surprised “Rocky” didn’t make a finalist here (via Project Hail Mary).
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by crisnoble on Monday October 19, 2026 @04:00PM
(#50157303)
In chicagoland, yes. For someone who moved there from California, it was strange that rocks hardly larger than a human warranted school field trips and plaques. Perhaps it is geologically cool, but I was unimpressed as a 6th grader. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53236492797_60069bde90_b...
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by waltbosz on Monday October 19, 2026 @04:38PM
(#50157733)
I thought the same thing. My back yard is full of huge rocks. Nothing quite that large, maybe 1/3 of that size. A few doors down there is a boulder twice as big as the O'Hare one.
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by quickthrowman on Monday October 19, 2026 @07:48PM
(#50159527)
In an area that was covered by a glacier in the last 20k years, yes.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by rags2riches on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @12:37AM
(#50161409)
It's not just the fact that the area was covered by ice. The local geology is also a factor.
Glacial erratics are everywhere in Scandinavia, which also obviously was covered by the ice. Small ones, like in the article, are scattered all over. Large ones weigh thousands of tons and may often be mistaken for bedrock.
I suspect there are other areas in North America where that's also true.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by tptacek on Monday October 19, 2026 @03:27PM
(#50156872)
Colbert is not a Chicago figure. You'd have to remind the median Chicagoan who knows who he is that he ever spent time here. You might just as easily name it after Bob Odenkirk.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by dhosek on Monday October 19, 2026 @10:31PM
(#50160667)
He grew up in Naperville. Wikipedia says he was born in Berwyn, which I assume just means he was born at McNeal, but I don’t think he ever lived there or there’d be a bigger deal made of it by the local gentry. But that voice is hardcore inner suburbs/southwest side. I had no difficulty believing Jimmy McGill grew up in Cicero.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by PyWoody on Monday October 19, 2026 @03:41PM
(#50157070)
If you're ever in the area of Madison, NH and have absolutely nothing else to do, the Madison Boulder is kinda neat. [0] It's a little bigger at about 5k tons.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by defrost on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @04:00AM
(#50162737)
If you're in the USofA it's the same 2,000 (US) pound ton you've always known.
For those of us elsewhere on the globe it's that non metric weight we call either a short ton or a US ton.
The OG ton, also known as the imperial ton or British ton is some 2,240 avoirdupois pounds that's been "standardised" (plus minus some obscure fuzzing) for some 700 years or so.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by stutstev on Monday October 19, 2026 @10:33PM
(#50160684)
With New Hampshire mentioned, I must make mention of one glorious boulder that sits alongside Rumney's Quincy Road[0]. This is worth checking out if you're visiting the Plymouth area. Street View doesn't do it justice.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by contingencies on Monday October 19, 2026 @03:56PM
(#50157245)
As an Australian aware of Chicago's Irish heritage and the implied weight balancing our antipodean clime, I'd suggest "Tip O'Dea".
PS. If visiting Chicago check out the Lincoln Conservatory, an amazing historic plant collection with one of the world's best ferneries, very close to downtown.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by dbcurtis on Monday October 19, 2026 @05:06PM
(#50158062)
Years ago, a company that I worked for had a huge boulder in the parking lot area that had simply been built around. At some point, facilities decided they were going to remove the boulder. Employees printed up some tee shirts that said "Save the BFR". Because, you know, it was a big rock.
Re:Chicago O'Hare Digs Up 50-Ton Boulder Under Airfield, Ask...
by AmazingEveryDay on Monday October 19, 2026 @07:07PM
(#50159236)
What means "prehistoric boulder", are not essentially all boulders prehistoric? I just don't know what a historic boulder would even mean. Something in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
ORD as an acronym? O Rock D
O’Hare Rock Dolostone O’Hare Runway Dolomite
Rocky.
Da Dolo
"Alright sooperfyans, next question. Who would win: Coach Ditka, or a 50-ton boulder flying down da side of a mountain?"
"Oh, dat's easy, Dit..."
"Hold ahhhn, hold ahhhn! Da boulder is also named 'Ditka'."
Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.
here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
[0]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652
But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock
Da Rocky McRockface
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/hist...
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
https://youtu.be/s7_z-SGxUAs?si=vUKYBWYvG7nncszd&t=924
Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.
O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite
Because, we so often take it for granite.
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
Glacial erratics are everywhere in Scandinavia, which also obviously was covered by the ice. Small ones, like in the article, are scattered all over. Large ones weigh thousands of tons and may often be mistaken for bedrock.
I suspect there are other areas in North America where that's also true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_The_Colbert...
https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Boulder
TIL there's something called a short ton.
For those of us elsewhere on the globe it's that non metric weight we call either a short ton or a US ton.
The OG ton, also known as the imperial ton or British ton is some 2,240 avoirdupois pounds that's been "standardised" (plus minus some obscure fuzzing) for some 700 years or so.
[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/L4EcqopjLqvX9HQMA
[0] https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-11-03/you-asked-we-answere...
PS. If visiting Chicago check out the Lincoln Conservatory, an amazing historic plant collection with one of the world's best ferneries, very close to downtown.
I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?
https://youtu.be/aO0TUI9r-So?si=7fNwDvf86GpVFxDR
FYI, this refers to "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" in 2020
https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/