Rockwall County's Rock Wall - Rockwall, TX
N 32° 55.876 W 096° 27.593
14S E 737503 N 3646529
A piece of the rock wall from which Rockwall County got its name is on display in front of the old Rockwall County Courthouse in Rockwall, TX, along with a plaque indicating that this section was excavated for the Bicentennial celebration.
Waymark Code: WMK9TZ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/06/2014
Views: 5
The rock wall itself is a rectangular structure approximately 3.5 miles wide by 5.6 miles long encompassing almost twenty square miles, and it is at least seven stories deep. To say that its origins are a subject of debate is an understatement, with conspiracy theories abounding as to how someone, somewhere, is repressing The Truth about some ancient civilization or space aliens who built the wall. Other explanations about the wall's natural formation are considerably more mundane, yet wonderful.
With that said, Rockwall is a fairly nice place to live and to visit, and they have enough going for them that the arguments about the wall are not the only thing bringing people into town. The first record that we have of the wall was its unearthing in 1852 by Benjamin Boydstun, Terry Utley Wade and William Clay Stevenson. In 1936, the year of the Texas Centennial, a section of the wall was cleared and put on display for a small admission fee, but that section was covered back up by 1949. (
visit link)
In 1976, another section of the rock wall was excavated under the direction of the county on land located near present-day FM 549 and Cornelius Road. The excavation was open to the public and saw many visitors. That same year, a Texas Historical Marker was placed on the square of the Rockwall County Courthouse, giving some history of the county and a nod to its namesake, a piece of which was placed in front of the marker. The marker says:
First settled in the 1840s, this region was a part of Kaufman County until 1873, when Rockwall County was created. With an area of 147 square miles, this is the smallest of Texas' 254 counties. The county and city of Rockwall were named for an underground formation of rock discovered in the early 1850s. Crossed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, Rockwall County is an area of fertile farmland. The location here of the aluminum industry and the creation of Lake Ray Hubbard from the East Fork of the Trinity River diversified the local economy in recent years. (1976)
At the base of the section of the wall is a commemorative plaque, featuring the Bicentennial logo and the following text:
Stones from the wall which was excavated by Rockwall County for public view in 1976 as part of our country's Bicentennial celebration
Rockwall Chamber of Commerce
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