KW Baker

Balance Rock

54642316365_03eca01496_k

"Estimated to be 300-350 million years old, the massive granite boulder, seemingly teetering precariously on another, was a popular gathering place for Morgan Countians for over a century. Legend has it that a hundred convicts and a team of mules couldn’t move the granite outcrop when the railroad was being built, and indeed the rail cars bounced by it for years and never shook it loose.

These outcrops were formed by the intrusion of molten granite into preexisting rock about ten miles below the surface. Over millions of years, erosion removed thousands of feet of overlying rock, exposing the more resistant bodies of granite. Interestingly, an unexpectedly large number of plant species occur only on Piedmont granite outcrops, among which are the monospecific genera Diamorpha and Amphianthus.

In 2012, the owners of the property known as Rattlesnake Ranch donated a 250-acre conservation easement to the Athens Land Trust to permanently protect this natural wonder. Also protected in that easement is approximately one mile of Hard Labor Creek, bottomland hardwood forest, and wildlife habitat." https://mailchi.mp/1f8b9e7cd72d/pfffpffg-balance-rock

Approx. Elevation: 525 feet (160 meters) USGS Map Area: Apalachee Feature Type: Pillar mmcgeorgia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Rock-of-Ages.pdf

|