Van Hise Rock
 
The material of this rock was once sand on the sea bottom from the Precambrian Era, 1.5 billion years ago, and has since hardened
into Baraboo purple and pink quartzite. It was tilted to the present position by slow earth movement, and then separated from an adjacent cliff by erosion.

The vertical light and dark bands represent the original layers. The inclined cracks in the dark layer were caused by the readjustment in the layers during tilting. This rock is pictured in geologic books as a type illustrating important principles of structural geology, and has been a point of special interest to many investigators in geology visiting this region. President Charles R. Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin was one of the first and foremost of these.
 
Winter 2018