Littleton, North Carolina -
Rock Garden of America

We stumbled upon the Rock Garden of America while driving US-158, in between stops to Soul City and the Roanoke Rapids Free Car Wash. A big sign in the front yard, proclaiming "Rock Garden of America - YOUR STATE SHOULD BE REPRESENTED HERE," enticed us to pull over and get out. The yard was peppered with concrete deer, a railroad crossing sign, a white wooden bridge that went over the grass, a couple of shingled umbrella structures, and of course, the Rock Garden itself, which has rocks from many states. Emblazoned on each rock, either written in permanent marker or chisled, is the state abbreviation from whence the rock came. There is a metal box with the words "Register Here" painted on it to the right of the garden. Inside the box, where there was probably once a sign-in book, it was now empty save for some spiderwebs.

Next to the rock garden is a rusty metal junk sculpture on a pole, with this philosophical food-for-thought spraypainted on it: "Don't worry about time. Be concerned about circumstances and events."

We knocked at the door hoping to get some more information, but the woman who lived there was hesitant to even answer the door, much less talk to us.

The driveway was marked with "Rock Garden of America entrance" and "Rock Garden of America exit" signs that were professionally printed on tin. Someone obviously put a bit of time and money into this, but as all 50 states are not represented, it is unclear whether it is a work-in-progress or simply abandoned. [Tony & Kimberly Paglia, 11/09/2002]