Prayer Rock

説明

A general history of the "Prayer Rock." The Search In late 1924, Richard Pettigrew began searching for a sacred boulder to add to his museum. He had heard about a large rock with symbols on it called Medicine Rock, located near Gettysburg, South Dakota. Pettigrew wanted to acquire a similar rock with symbols on it to preserve and display in Sioux Falls. He sent a request to E.S. Peterson of Mobridge and J.W. Parmely of Ipswich to begin looking for a suitable piece. A large boulder was found by Peterson with several large hand prints, but he estimated the boulder as weighing 15 to 20 tons. Pettigrew believed that it was too large to transport to Sioux Falls and requested that the search continue for a smaller boulder. Eventually, this three-ton example was found on a ranch near Evarts, South Dakota. The ranch belonged to J.J. Bentz, but was being rented by Ed Klein. Mr. Pettigrew purchased the boulder from Bentz and hired Klein to remove and transport it to the railroad station at Mobridge, where it would be shipped to Sioux Falls. Ed Klein put together a team of six men to move the rock into town, a 17 mile trip. The first attempt to move the boulder was by using a 15-horsepower engine and leverage to pull it up, but after four hours they hadn't made much progress. Eventually, it took six men, two wagons, and eight horses to pull the boulder free from the earth and move it to the railroad station. Pettigrew paid Mr. Klein and his team $75 for their work, and an additional…