Balance Rock in Lanesborough is a 165-ton limestone boulder measuring 25 feet by 15 feet by 10 feet that rests three feet off the ground on top of another rock. These measurements were well established before the twentieth century and can be found, with elaboration, in “Appendix I. Sketch of Geological History of Balance Rock” in Charles J. Palmer’s History of Town of Lanesborough. 1741-1905. That’s not to say that these figures have gone unchallenged. In 1938, highway engineers estimated the boulder’s weight to be ~365 tons. Whatever the actual weight, Balance Rock is truly amazing. The illusion of this boulder’s precariousness is simply irresistible and yet Balance Rock has withstood centuries of pesky humans trying their best to topple it.  To be sure, past writers have emphasized the rock’s precariousness over and over again. Elias Nason, the author of Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts, wrote in 1874 that the boulder, “… is so pivoted on another rock, about three feet from the ground, that it can be easily moved, and still not overturned.” -Berkshire Destinations

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