Giant Rock
34°19′58″N 116°23′19″W / 34.332813°N 116.388723°W
Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, that covers 5,800 square feet (540 m2) of ground and is seven stories high. Giant Rock is purported to be the largest free standing boulder in the world.
Native Americans of the Joshua Tree, California, area consider it to be sacred. A single large room, which was subsequently filled in, was dug beneath the rock and resided in by a prospector named Frank Critzer during the 1930s and early 1940s. Critzer perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in this room on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local police.[1] In the 1950s it was a gathering point for UFO believers. It is located on land which was at that time leased by George Van Tassel, a friend of Critzer's, a purported flying-saucer contactee and organizer of UFO conventions.[2] Van Tassel also built the nearby Integratron and a small airport in the vicinity, which he operated from 1947 to 1975. Shortly after the turn of the 21st century, Giant Rock fractured in two, revealing an interior of white granite. The exterior surface of the rock is partially covered in graffiti.[3]
References
- ^ Ed Ainsworth, Plans For 'Out of This World' Laboratory In Desert Disclosed (Los Angeles Times: June 17, 1954), pg.A1.
- ^ "Life on other planets: The house the Venusians built". The Independent, UK. May 5, 2006. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
- ^ "Life on other planets: The house the Venusians built". The Independent, UK. May 5, 2006. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
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