Sandstone Hill

 hill, interesting place

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Nicollet described the spot in his journal as a "pretty hill of soft and rough-grained and varied colored sandstone. Worked over by the wind and the rain, it has the appearance of an old chateau, or fort in ruins with castellations, window openings, and loopholes."
Looming above the surrounding countryside, the formation was to Nicollet a familiar landmark. On a trip through the area a year earlier he had paused there long enough to carve his name in the soft stone, perhaps feeling a need to leave a sign letting subsequent travelers know that someone had passed this way before.
That carved inscription eroded away long ago, but Sandstone Hill is still there today. Now known as Lone Rock, it remains an important point of interest at the southern edge of UMore Park.
For more than 150 years, Lone Rock has stood largely untouched as the landscape all around it has been in nearly continuous transition--a sort of geological palimpsest upon which history has been written and rewritteby many generations of Minnesotans. Like Joseph Nicollet, each generation has left something behind for those who followed, reminding them that someone has passed this way before.