Calumet Park, just north of the Indiana border, is lined with around half a mile of limestone blocks bearing more than 1,200 rock carvings. That’s the largest concentration of carvings anywhere along the Chicago lakefront, where more than 6,000 carvings survive, most made by anonymous creators starting around 1930. The abundance of Coast Guard sailers stationed at the southern end of the park and the many fisherman who work the shoreline just to the north must have contributed their fair share. In both cases they are likely to be folks with time on their hands. Another factor is the high
Continue readingArt On The Belmont Rocks
More than 250 works of art survive on a row of blocks preserved when the limestone steps north of Diversey Harbor in Chicago were replaced with a new concrete-and-steel revetment. The other blocks — there had to be thousands ripped out — hosted a treasure trove of art that is now gone forever. Those same blocks helped form the heart of Chicago’s gay community. I’ll leave it to Owen Keehnen, historian of the Rocks, to explain more in this passage from the Facebook group he manages. Although the gay scene at the Belmont Rocks did not survive the reconstruction, about
Continue readingThe Rainbow Beach Rock Carvings
The limestone blocks that define the west and east ends of Rainbow beach are dense with stone carvings, mostly executed in the decades following World War II. The beach itself dates as far back as 1908, but the limestone structures were installed later. The carvings include some first-rate figurative images alongside hundreds of names and initials, many of them left by lifeguards working at the beach. According to Buzz Zingaro, who made at least three carvings himself, the lifeguards would pass around hammers and chisels and carve their names during down time. Accompanying the name would be the years they
Continue readingChicago’s Lakefront Rock Carvings By Location
Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline hosts an amazing collective work of art, engraved on the limestone blocks that run down in steps to the water along several miles of its length. The thousands of rock carvings made by mostly anonymous creators starting in the first half of the 20th century represent an efflorescence of public art that is unique in the world, and barely acknowledged in Chicago. The carvings start at Calumet Beach Park near the Indiana state line and end 22 miles north, just south of Osterman Beach at Hollywood Avenue. More than 6,000 of these carvings have survived into
Continue readingThe La Rabida Rock Carvings
Behind La Rabida Hospital at 65th Street and Lake Michigan there is an exquisite collection of rock carvings from the 20th century. Or I should say once exquisite, as they have taken a beating from the lake and the weather in recent years. This spot, where carving began in the 1930s, includes one of the finest carved rocks along the lake, which I call the Peace Rock, as well as a compass beautifully rendered in stone. The compass, however, is on a rock that has already started sliding into the lake, and more are sure to follow absent some kind
Continue readingMontrose Area Rock Carvings: How To Find Them
Nearly 500 rock carvings survive on the limestone steps in the Montrose Beach/Montrose Harbor area of Chicago, although many of those along Montrose Beach are buried under encroaching sand. You can click on the map below for a downloadable and interactive set of maps that show the locations of the most interesting carvings in this area. This document is suitable for printing, or you can click on each carving description to see an image of the artwork. Below the map is a gallery showing all the carvings, from north at the dog beach to south, just past the entrance to
Continue readingFoster Beach Rock Carvings: How To Find Them
The Foster Beach area is home to more than 600 rock carvings on the limestone blocks that line the shore. This page features a selection of the 200 or so carvings that run from the north end of Foster Beach to Osterman Beach at Hollywood Avenue, and the best of the about 400 carvings that start at the south end of Foster Beach and stretch a bit less than a mile to the Montrose Dog Beach. The carvings north of the beach are among the easiest to see along the Chicago waterfront. The concrete deck at the base of the
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