Chicago O'Hare digs up 50-ton boulder under airfield, asks public for name ideas (simpleflying.com)

65 points by Stratoscope 19 hours ago

syspec 7 minutes ago

Interesting, the construction worker who found is said he never found one that big in all his years working in the field.

I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?

cmrx64 19 hours ago

https://news.wttw.com/2026/09/11/rock-star-meet-guy-who-exca...

here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!

Stratoscope 15 hours ago

That is a wonderful article!

> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.

> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”

xnx 41 minutes ago

That rock couldn't have been found by a better guy.

aktenlage 15 hours ago

Thank you, great read.

matthewsinclair 19 hours ago

Surely it has to be “Boulder McBoulderface”?

[0]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652

samgranieri 2 hours ago

I was going to suggest just this! I love Boaty McBoatface.

But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock

aceazzameen 40 minutes ago

Can have the best of both worlds.

Da Rocky McRockface

tanseydavid 8 minutes ago

Stratoscope 19 hours ago

Here are the name finalists:

  • Sweet Stone Chicago
  • No ORDinary Rock
  • Chicago Rocks
  • O'Rock
  • Orchard Rock
  • Da Rock
"No ORDinary Rock" and "Orchard Rock" are the winners for me. They both pay tribute to how O'Hare got its IATA airport code in the 1940s, when it was called Orchard Field.

So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.

robotnikman 8 minutes ago

I like 'Da Rock' because it reminds me of da orks from Warhammer 40K

lbriner 30 minutes ago

Just call it "Dwayne Johnson"?

Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.

jhatax 2 hours ago

Surprised to see `ExtraORDinary Rock` missing => 50-tons, that's got to meet the bar for extraordinary.

whycome 2 hours ago

Wish I saw some of the larger list. This still seems weak.

ORD as an acronym? O Rock D

O’Hare Rock Dolostone O’Hare Runway Dolomite

Rocky.

Da Dolo

RaftPeople 2 hours ago

Ditka

anonymousDan 2 hours ago

I like it. Ditka Rock has a certain ring to it.

JoeAltmaier 2 hours ago

"Mother's Love"

Because, we so often take it for granite.

bcaulfield 19 hours ago

Should name it Dwayne Johnson and never explain further.

cestith 6 hours ago

Or Rudy Ray Moore.

wffurr an hour ago

Glad they included a video of moving it. 50 tons is close to the limit of a typical boom crane.

PyWoody 2 hours ago

If you're ever in the area of Madison, NH and have absolutely nothing else to do, the Madison Boulder is kinda neat. [0] It's a little bigger at about 5k tons.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Boulder

ternaryoperator 2 hours ago

Is a 50-ton boulder rare or super-rare?

waltbosz an hour ago

I thought the same thing. My back yard is full of huge rocks. Nothing quite that large, maybe 1/3 of that size. A few doors down there is a boulder twice as big as the O'Hare one.

I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.

crisnoble an hour ago

In chicagoland, yes. For someone who moved there from California, it was strange that rocks hardly larger than a human warranted school field trips and plaques. Perhaps it is geologically cool, but I was unimpressed as a 6th grader. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53236492797_60069bde90_b...

hoppyhoppy2 2 hours ago

Dunno, but I haven't ever come across one on my property.

Yizahi 2 hours ago

Medium-rare I would guess

tptacek 2 hours ago

Not from the look of it.

dbcurtis 20 minutes ago

Years ago, a company that I worked for had a huge boulder in the parking lot area that had simply been built around. At some point, facilities decided they were going to remove the boulder. Employees printed up some tee shirts that said "Save the BFR". Because, you know, it was a big rock.

lifeisstillgood 21 minutes ago

“Deep Crust” surely?

whycome 2 hours ago

When Toronto had to name their team, I’m sure that the success of Jurassic Park helped the finalist (Raptors) win. I’m surprised “Rocky” didn’t make a finalist here (via Project Hail Mary).

Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.

O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite

MadrasTh0rn 36 minutes ago

CHIrock or CHI (shy) stone

mikewarot 14 hours ago

Tangent time: I've got a smaller one in my yard, and I've got a set of feathers and wedges to avoid having to dig it all up at once. Here's a video of someone using feathers and wedges to split granite.

https://youtu.be/s7_z-SGxUAs?si=vUKYBWYvG7nncszd&t=924

karlkloss 15 hours ago

Rocky McRockface

JoeAltmaier 2 hours ago

Pictures or it didn't happen?

lukeify 2 hours ago

O’Hareball!

mrlonglong 2 hours ago

Bouldery McBoulderface.

nyc_data_geek an hour ago

Rocky McRockFace

huxley 2 hours ago

“A large boulder the size of a small boulder"

https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/

entrope 21 minutes ago

I was going to suggest something in that vein, perhaps "a giant boulder the size of a large boulder" to distinguish it from its Coloradan cousin.

shmilia 2 hours ago

Bean

contingencies an hour ago

As an Australian aware of Chicago's Irish heritage and the implied weight balancing our antipodean clime, I'd suggest "Tip O'Dea".

PS. If visiting Chicago check out the Lincoln Park Conservatory, an amazing historic plant collection with one of the world's best ferneries, very close to downtown. https://www.lincolnparkconservancy.org/projects/conservatory...

ashton314 2 hours ago

Peewee Pebblestone

wewewedxfgdf 2 hours ago

Big Boy Boulder

pvaldes 2 hours ago

Stonehangar, of course

mindslight 18 hours ago

There's something about finding huge rocks in the ground while digging that makes you just want to take them out and like, use them for something? The last one I found I had to make myself leave it there (well I moved it over a foot so a pipe didn't have to go around it). Like no, it has sat here for thousands of years just fine, it can keep sitting. Glad to hear it applies to 50 ton ones, as well.

acomjean 16 hours ago

In New England they made stone walls out of them. Of course most where smallish

https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/hist...

In “original” England they did as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone

mindslight 5 hours ago

Oh sure, I'm definitely familiar with those. The weird ones are in forests, a reminder that an area used to be clear and then was left to grow back.

The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.

acomjean 17 hours ago

In New England they made stone walls out of them.

In “original” England they did as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone

powerbroker 19 hours ago

There is another rock sitting alongside a chief artery about 25 miles NW just beyond Schaumburg. Silly to give these things a name.

Stratoscope 19 hours ago

There are big rocks everywhere. But surely we can be allowed to have a little fun?

powerbroker 17 hours ago

OK, OK. just drag it up to Schaumburg. Put it next to the other rock. Then call it 'micro-henge'.

Stratoscope 17 hours ago

hal-eisen 2 hours ago

How is it possible that NONE of the candidate names refer to Colbert? Especially given his time with Second City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_The_Colbert...

nonethewiser 2 hours ago

I dont get it. Does he have some association with large rocks or something?

tptacek 2 hours ago

Colbert is not a Chicago figure. You'd have to remind the median Chicagoan who knows who he is that he ever spent time here. You might just as easily name it after Bob Odenkirk.