These rocks really rock

Off Beat
Paul Leighton

June 24, 2009 12:05 am

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WENHAM — It's hard to pass by the Welbourns' home on Cherry Street without pausing to notice the gravity-defying assemblage of rocks on the front lawn.

Stacked one on top of the other, in two columns, the stones rise out of a piece of bedrock like a mini-Stonehenge.

David Welbourn said he stacked the rocks on a whim last fall when he was repairing his stone wall. And no, there's no super glue or invisible wires involved. Welbourn simply used the rock's natural shapes and crevices to piece them together.

"I didn't have any idea how long they would stand," he said.

Welbourn said it's not unusual for people to stop and comment about his impromptu monument.

"People holler, 'I like your rocks,'" he said.

Off Beat is a weekly feature of The Salem News. Please e-mail ideas to sflynn@salemnews.com