Merle Travis Memorial Rock

Wildcat Point, Oklahoma

Merle Travis was a pioneering country music performer. His most famous song, "Sixteen Tons," later became the signature hit record for Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Merle fell into a period of drug and alcohol abuse, but righted himself and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977. Six years later, in 1983, he died of a heart attack in his Oklahoma home.

His fans, apparently wanting to give credit where credit was due, painted a big tribute boulder to Merle near the spot formerly occupied by his death house, and called attention to the fact that it is "16 tons of rock."