Matahari... vandalism in your neighborho od!

“St. Croix landmark tumbles
Chuck Haga, Star Tribune
April 12, 2005 CHAIR0412

It stood by the river for thousands of years, shaped by wind, water,
heat and cold, and was admired by countless visitors easing past in
canoes, boats and inner tubes. It became part of a town's identity and a
bond across generations.
But the Devil's Chair, an ancient natural rock formation on the
Minnesota side of the St. Croix River near Taylors Falls, is largely gone -- a
heap of broken stone scattered about what was the chair's base.

Officials at Minnesota Interstate State Park, which included the famous
landmark among its attractions, said Monday that they believe vandals
caused much of the chair's high backrest to fall.

"There were scuff marks and pry marks that look like people tried to
push more of it over," said Larry Buchholz, park manager. "It was helped
to fall."

A rock climber reported the landmark's destruction on Saturday, he
said. The climber had been in the area the previous weekend and saw the
Devil's Chair intact, so the damage had to have been done since then.

It is "difficult and challenging but not impossible" to climb to the
chair site, Buchholz said.
The Chisago County Sheriff's Office and state conservation officers are
investigating, and notices asking for information have been posted in
the area. Park officials plan to inspect the remaining rock to assess
its stability.

"It was our primary scenic, geological and cultural formation, and now
it's gone," Buchholz said. "You can't replace it. Once it's gone, it's
gone forever."
Both the park and the town of Taylors Falls used the unusual rock
formation as a logo.
"It's been a point of local pride since before the park was established
in 1895," Buchholz said.
The park also features unusual formations collectively known as the
Devil's Parlor -- three or four "potholes" caused by swirling water and
sand from melting glaciers boring through solid rock. Two of those holes
side by side are known as the Devil's Footprint.
They were so named long ago, Buchholz said, "because if you couldn't
explain something in the natural world you blamed it on the devil."
Mayor Mike Buchite, a Taylors Falls resident since 1989, said that he
has admired the formation since he first saw it in 1971 on a post-prom
field trip with other members of the Elk River High School graduating
class.
He said he hopes an investigation finds that the collapse occurred
naturally.

"Mother Nature put it there, and you stand there and look at it in
awe," he said. "If Mother Nature were to take it away, you'd still look at
it in awe and wonder. But if vandalism was involved, that makes you
feel violated."
The city may consider offering a reward for information if vandalism
was involved, he said.
Buchite said he visited the site Monday and saw that part of the
formation remains.
"It's the back rest area that's gone," he said. "It looks more like a
stool now. Maybe we'll rename it the Devil's Stool."
Amy Frischmon, 35, operates Taylors Falls Scenic Boat Tours, which
carries thousands of area people and tourists past the Devil's Chair and
other stone formations each year.
"The Devil's Chair is best seen from the river, in the Dalles area of
the St. Croix," she said. "It was a pinnacle of rock that looked like a
high-backed chair. Millions of visitors must have seen it over the
years."
Losing it "is quite a tragedy for our little community," she said.
Her great-grandfather started the boat tours company in 1906, "and I
grew up climbing in those rocks," she said. "My older kids all got to
know the Devil's Chair. Now all I can think about is my 3-year-old will
never know it. That makes me sick to my stomach."
That vandalism may have brought the formation down "makes it that much
more horrible," Frischmon said.
Chuck Haga is at
crhaga@startribune.com.”

“I know, I heard about in on MPR (Minnestoa Public Radio) Sunday..breaks my heart..that chair was so cool and so much a part of the landscape from the river..I don't even have any decent picture of it as it was hard to photograph from land and melted into the background from the river..I'm hoping they decide it was a natural phenomenom and not the handiwork of some sick mind..somehow, the "Devil's Footstool" just doesn't have the same ring...sad, very sad...”

“That sounds like something the idiots around here would do. I few years ago the water company put new shingles on a pump house building at one of the reservoirs and within a week ATVer's tore them all off. After that the water company installed a sheet metal roof and shortly afterward that was torn off as well. It was probably the same people. Some people for some sick reason are never satisfied unless they can destroy something.”

“Why not float a barge crane down the river and put the rock back on the seat part of the "chair"? Or if Minn can't afford that maybe they could just mold one out of styrofoam and glue it back on.”

“sounds like conservative vandalism to me”

“I think the vandals were liberal with their destruction ;-)”

“Criminals are overwhelmingly liberal, as they are overwhelmingly poor, and the poor are overwhelmingly left of center. Still, this vandalism was probably conservative, if you ask me. Sounds like just the thing to get under the skin of some royally uptight enviro-elitists. LOL”

“This whole Lib/Con thing about rock vandals is as stupid as it gets. This isn't a damn Fuego thread. ;-)
last edited: 4/13/05 7:36:29 AM”

“Rock Vandals - I think I saw some of them in LOTR”

“LOL
Hope Stikmon wasn't seen in the area. ;-)”

“LOL, you're right stovey. Never dreamed it would be a fuego thread!!! >8-O”

“The rocks shattered when they hit the ground below, which was mainly more rocks..there's nothing left to put together:( I imagine some parts fell into the St Croix River..that chair was on a a slope so steep one could almost call it a cliff...”

“If it were vandals, I hope they get caught.....maybe some locals can pry open their pubic region.”

“Here's a photo of the area, taken on the Wisconsin side looking at Minnesota. I don't know if the chair would have been in this shot??

very pretty area!!

http://community.webshots.com/photo/141793872/141800846kgkpTk”

“Is it the rock those fat people are sitting on or is the little-bitty rock on the far right middle?”

“NO, SOLLY, get with the program! They are on the WISCONSIN side. lol.... Here's a shot with some of the potholes on the Wisconsin side and the excursion boat on the Minnesota side below. Nice work on the angles, huh, Solly? lol, you can barely tell I' m on top of a drop-off cliff.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/141800729/141800729wqkSDJ”

“I think this rock fell off by itself. Water got under the "back part of the chair" and froze. This caused movement and the rock fell into the water. No big deal. Minnesotans should quite whining and get back to shoveling their sidewalks.”

“Rocks do fall.
Landmark rocks that have fallen in the last coupl of years include the old man in Franconia notch, New Hampshire 5/03/03


Another was the gunsight in either the red river gorge or the new river gorge where a rock pillar that had been there forever fell.

Closer to home, big chunks have fallen out of overhangs in both the Gunks and Ralph Stover "Tango wall" in the last couple of years.”

“Yeah was this "chair" pictured on the Minnesota quarter by any chance? That's what caused "vandals" to pry the Old Man in the Mountain face off last year. It's the quarter curse.”

“LMAO, yeah, I'm SURE that's it!! Actually, the MN state quarter just got released Tuesday, I think. I'm not sure what's on it.

Let's hope this rock stands for awhile yet, the "Stone Face" in Illinois' Shawnee National Forest.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/185584640/185585773HGtnqQ”

“Here's a before and after photo..
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S7605.html?cat=64”

“strange, I thought the stone face looked like this:

”

“Vandals brought down 60 tons of basalt with a jackhammer!!!???!!! And where was Barney Fife park ranger when all the noise was reverberated through the woods? And pray tell us where these "vandals" hooked up that jackhammer? Did they run 500 foot air lines down from their portable air compressor and generator? This is a BS story for sure. The damn thing fell in the river because water froze in the fissures of the rocks and split the rocks off. Some clown park ranger is trying to get some more government funding for guns, Tazers, Kelvar vests, and bigger SUVs. All the better to billy club some kid for walking his dog without a leash or building a fire outside a fire ring.
>
Lizs I know you newspaper reporters like to sensationalize the news to sell papers but this story beggars belief.
last edited: 4/15/05 10:14:17 AM”

“I was thinking the same sort of thing when I read the article on teh whale in the delaware river and the Aquarium manager dude said its a sign of teh health of the Oceans. Like whales have never gone up a river before.”

“Yeah same thing ... just another way to make a naturally occuring incident a fund raising scheme for the local authorities. If the water was so bad in the Delaware River don't people realize the whale would have known it and left? Even whales are smart enough to not want to swim with floaters all around them!”

“Solly, well we all know that TERRORISTS DID IT!!!!!

sheesh!






;-)”

“So, I just came from talking to the Ranger from the Minnesota side of the Interstate Park..he said it was a "for sure" thing that the damage was man-made..there are obvious marks of a hydraulic jack..he said it had to have been very carefully planned and that they were lucky not to have got hurt as the surrounding rock is very crumbly. He also mentioned that the paper had got it wrong..as mentioned above and as I said to him, there was no way a jack-hammer could be used along the river without the whole town hearing it reverberate along the cliffs..I bought a t-shirt, lapel pin and patch with the Devil's Chair on them...not many left from last years' stock and the new ones will no longer depict the chair..that is, the lady monitoring the counter doesn't THINK they will. She said they had received lots of phone calls asking it be rebuilt..this will never happen..as she said, it took nature thousands of years to build it...
last edited: 4/15/05 12:05:57 PM”