Meyer Bender ’29, a long-time benefactor of the department, became interested in the idea of placing the rocks outdoors where they would appear in a more natural setting, could be easily accessed for teaching purposes, and where passers-by could readily examine them. He and his wife, Gertrude, provided the funds to build two rock parks on the Pew Engineering Quad in front of Kimball, Thurston, and Bard Halls.
The first, “Rock Park East,” was installed in 1971 and accommodated the rocks formerly in McGraw. The second, “Rock Park West,” was completed in the fall of 1978 following an ambitious effort, led by Ted Snedden ’78, to acquire large rock specimens from across New York and New England and create a collection that was representative of the geology of the region.
In 2022, both collections were moved to the southeastern portion of the Pew Engineering Quad and rearranged to align with how faculty use the rocks in their teaching. The Bender family also sponsored additional rock parks on the east side of Snee Hall and at the Cornell Center for Jewish Living.
When Thurston Hall was expanded in 2022-24 the East and West Rock Parks were moved to their current location on the Pew Engineering Quad. Professor Geoff Abers, Chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, used the move as an opportunity to configure the rocks in an arrangement better suited to using them for educational purposes.
Although the rocks in the rock park may be classified in a number of ways, no single classification scheme is adequate for all of them. Each rock is distinct from all the others and must be considered separately. For this reason a short description of each specimen follows, to aid the observer in inspecting the collection. Each description includes information about the rock’s composition and the minerals visible to the naked eye; where (and in some cases how) the rock was procured; and its uses, both geologic and economic. The age of the rock is given by specifying a geologic time period and, when known, the name of the particular geologic formation to which the rock belongs. A geologic time scale has been provided so that the reader may translate the named geologic periods into approximate ages of formation.
Because the specimens are so diverse, the rock parks may appear to lack a uniform arrangement. When the rocks are examined individually, the observer will find that they acquire distinct personalities. The rocks represent great numbers of years that may be determined and listed but not truly comprehended. The geologists’ view of time is necessarily a long one, and so the rock parks—with some specimens older than one billion years—provide an ideal place for quiet reflection in the fast-paced environment of Cornell University.
You will find below a short description of each of the 40 rocks in the Pew Engineering Quad rock park along with where each rock was collected.
Revision of this interpretive text was done in cooperation with the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca. Special thanks to Cornell EAS Professor Warren Allmon and to Professor Carlton Brett of the University of Cincinnati, Cornell EAS Professor Emeritus Teresa Jordan, and Cornell EAS graduate student Kyle Dayton for sharing information and comments on earlier drafts of the text.