Wedgwood Rock

It’s a famous line from a mediocre movie: «That’s not a knife, THAT’S a knife!»
The movie of course is Crocodile Dundee staring Paul Hogan. It is utterly forgettable and in fact, I have forgotten everything about it, except when I visit my neighborhood’s biggest tourist draw, the Wedgwood Rock.
«That’s not a rock, THAT’S a rock!»
Standing 19 feet tall and deposited by glacial ice sheets tens of thousands of years ago, the Wedgwood Rock is a humbling reminder of just how little control we humans have over our grand Mother Earth. According to Dr. Terry W. Swanson, of the UW Department of Geological Sciences, the Wedgwood Rock has its origins on Fidalgo Island, near Anacortes, about 75 miles north of Seattle. It was carried 75 miles and by ice sheets and then deposited in little old Wedgwood as the most recent ice age ended (source:
).
Admittedly, the Wedgwood Rock doesn’t quite rank up there with Seattle’s top tourist draws, but it’s always a lot of fun to take visitors on a drive by and watch their eyes bulge as we round the corner to 28^th Ave NE and the rock comes into view. Kudos to the neighbors of the Wedgwood Rock who have assumed the role of caretakers for the iconic boulder, from enforcing the climbing ban, to gardening around it, to making sure graffiti gets cleaned up promptly.
It’s a bit ironic, of course, that the Wedgwood Rock isn’t actually in the Wedgwood neighborhood, which is widely considered to encompass the boundaries of NE 95^th St to NE 75^th St, between 45^th Ave NE on the east to a combination of Lake City Way, Ravenna Ave NE, and 25^th Ave NE on the west (Source:
). Technically I suppose it would be the Ravenna neighborhood that the rock actually resides in. Still, that bit of trivia doesn’t detract from the neighborhood’s love for its most famous attraction, nor its appeal to young and old alike.

Tip: While the Wedgwood Rock may be the neighborhood’s largest and most famous glacial erratic, it is hardly the only one. Check out the Wedgwood Rock’s modest sibling located in a tiny park known as Wedgwood Square at the corner of 31^st Ave NE and NE 82^nd Street.

Take your out of town relatives here for a walk around Jeff Bezos’s neighborhood and tell them that long ago, what is now known as Wedgwood was once a secret trading post between French Canadian beaver hunters and the local Indian tribes and when those Canucks tried to be stingy traders, they would be taken to the Wedgwood Rock where they’d be scalped or hung — and every Halloween, Jeff Bezos comes out of his house and dresses up like a Canadian zombie with his dogs and hides on top of the rock where he throws candy at all the trick or treaters and yells out «O’Doyle Rules!»
Ok, well all of that is totally untrue, but that is pretty much the degree of imagination that one must conjure upon visiting the Wedgwood Rock because after all, that is all it is, a prehistoric remnant of mesolithic glacial melting. Legend says that a dinosaur lives in it.
Spray painting, TP’ing, and even belay rock climbing are verboten. There are signs all around the thing that warn against climbing because apparently people have tried to go out there and test out their new REI climbing gear, much to the neighbors chagrin. And ironically enough, the thing is such a neighborhood fixture that neighbors will seriously come out of their houses and scold you for trying to do anything that looks suspicious. So yeah, enjoy the Wedgwood Rock for what it is.
p. s. Jeff Bezos doesn’t live in Wedgwood.

I used to live several blocks away from the Wedgwood Rock, and liked to walk by it from time to time.
I wouldn’t drive a significant distance to come see it, but it’s still pretty cool to have this this huge rock just sittin’ there in an urban residential neighborhood.
I’ve read that this rock has a pretty rich history as a landmark for native americans, a picnic spot for families, a place for hippies to hang out and do drugs, etc… right now, however, it’s just a big rock on the corner with houses all around… and apparently you get fined $ 100 if you’re caught climbing it.

I love «The Rock».
There is something magical about cruising through a cute residential community and seeing a gigantic boulder sitting in the middle of a sidewalk. I’m so happy they didn’t blast this landmark to pieces. It’s the definition of local flavor.
A lot of people make special trips to come gawk at the natural wonder. I personally think it’s worth a side trip if you are out in the area. And so do a lot of other people.
You’ll even see the climbing ropes hanging from the branches, of course you aren’t supposed to climb it. ($ 100 fine if you are caught!) The neighbors in the area keep the rock tidy and clean of graffiti and back in the day used to decorate the rock for the holidays! There are plenty of school groups from elementary to university that come to check out the rock too.
It reminds you that, you are sort of insignificant in the natural history of the world. And I appreciate that.