Oldest Monument In Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Nearly 16 feet tall, a battered monument marks the state line between Indiana and Illinois, and has been doing so since 1838. Built of large, age-pitted limestone blocks in a crude kind of pyramid, topped by a little roof that looks like a hat, it stands in a small patch of gravel just outside the gates of the Commonwealth Edison Generating Plant.
We normally don't care much about state line markers, not even big ones. But this particular pile of rocks has the distinction of being here longer than any other human-made monument in Chicago; it's been here nearly as long as there's been a Chicago. In deference to its alpha status, it was carefully moved about 200 feet north to its present spot in 1988, and was designated an official Chicago Landmark in 2002.
People have gone to a lot of trouble for this blocky thing.