The officially titled "University of Texas of the Permian Basin Stonehenge" was built in the summer of 2004 by a group of civic-minded locals. They thought that a full-size Stonehenge would make a good University teaching tool and a good Odessa tourist attraction. Although the original Stonehenge took 2,000 years to build, this one went up in six weeks.
The Odessa Stonehenge is built of limestone slabs weighing 15-20 tons apiece, and a plaque notes that the replica is "as it appears today in England." That's not exactly true. The slabs were leftovers that were donated by a quarry, so they're approximations, not duplicates; the Stonehenge stands in a circle of reddish Texas gravel, not the green Salisbury Plain; and the Heel Stone, which marks the Summer Solstice, had to be positioned across the street. Still, it's a good replica, and the space-and-time-warp experience of any visit is enhanced by this Stonehenge's very visible neighbors, which include a Home Depot, a Staples, and a McDonald's.
