Rainbow gneiss

The rock so nice they named it gneiss.

House of Stone

For the first month after we moved from Ortonville, we lived in a house made of stone.  It was built, as many of the buildings in my new park were built, by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's as part of FDR's New Deal.  The walls are about 16 inches thick.

The rock it is made from is Morton gneiss, otherwise known as rainbow gneiss, and cut from a quarry near Morton, Minnesota.  According to Wikipedia, "The Morton Gneiss is an Archean-age migmatitic gneiss found in southwestern Minnesota. It has been dated to 3.6 billion years ago, making it one of the oldest rock units on the planet. It is believed to have originally been a granite before it was metamorphosed."

It is beautiful stuff.  I will try to take a closer picture tomorrow so you can see the ribbons of color that run through the stone.  All of the CCC and VCC (Veterans Conservation Corps) buildings at Fort Ridgely are build from it.

During supper one evening, my youngest son asked what would happen if a tornado came through.  My husband laughed and said that we were in the safest place we could be.  Every other house in the state could be flattened, and ours would still be standing.  It just might be true.