Storage & Organization up to 60% OFF!
Plus, a FREE Gift! | Details Here.
Plus, a FREE Gift! | Details Here.
Cheers
Give a Cheer
Give a Cheer
Hole N'' The Rock is, more accurately, a home in the rock which is located in the Canyonland Canyon area outside Moab, Utah. The 5,000 square foot dwelling has 14 rooms including a kitchen, living room (with 65' chimney), bathroom, and bedrooms. The rooms of the home were all blasted and hand carved from sandstone by Albert Christensen.
The rock is covered with huge painted white letters that scream out "Hole N' The Rock.," A Rushmore-like head of Franklin Roosevelt, which Albert carved into the rock, is near the entrance. (In the panorama photo look just below the “O” in rock)
Albert Christensen started blasting the cave for Hole N' The Rock in 1945. While the rest of the world celebrated the end of war, Albert celebrated the displacement of sandstone. By the time he was done, he blasted away 50,000 cubic feet of the stuff. In 1952, he and his wife Gladys moved in. It was a dark yet cozy place, and in those nuclear times, perhaps the best bomb shelter in all of Utah. Albert couldn't bear to part with his dearly departed donkey Harry, so, amateur taxidermist he was, he stuffed the animal. Today, Harry stands stiffly next to Albert's painting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The painting is impressive; Harry is not; the huge stitch up his front makes him look like he died during donkey bypass surgery.
The couple operated a diner in the first room until 1955 when Albert's had his first heart attack. Albert died in 1957, but Gladys lived 17 more years. Even after his death, his wife Gladys continued to live here, providing tours of her home.
-----
The tour of the home is quite interesting. Once you enter through the gift shop you immediately notice that you are indeed in a cave. The guide leads you through the doors from the gift shop and into the living quarters. The first room you see is the kitchen which is painted green and has a deep fryer that is actually carved into the rock. Before there was a home here (in the early days of the excavation process), Albert and Gladys ran a restaurant here. The kitchen in the home is the same kitchen that was used for the restaurant. Health codes required the walls to be painted. For that reason, the kitchen became the only painted room in the house. (The part where people ate is now the gift shop which we walked through before the tour.)
After passing through the kitchen, you enter the main living area which is one big hollowed-out chamber divided into several separate "rooms" by the remaining support columns of rock. There's also a bathroom (complete with a deep bathtub carved out of rock). The tour points out Albert's work area and some of his taxidermy subjects, as well as Gladys's jewelry-making station. Her necklaces and bracelets helped pay the bills after Albert passed, although she never revealed the source of her "Desert Glass" she made into jewelry which she sold (broken 7-Up and beer bottle fragments, tumbled and polished into jewels).
No products have been added to this project.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
September 01, 2011
August 30, 2011
August 29, 2011
August 28, 2011
August 28, 2011
August 25, 2011
August 25, 2011
August 24, 2011
August 23, 2011