Rock in the House, Fountain City

Ever mind your own business in your own home and then suddenly a 55-ton boulder crashes into your house? It happened in 1995 to Dwight and Maxine Anderson in Fountain City. Fortunately no one was hurt, but their now-infamous “Rock In The House,” as it’s become known, was vacated by the understandably freaked-out couple soon afterwards. Local real estate investor John Burt purchased the property and now runs it as a small tourist attraction, with the boulder still sitting in the living room where it crashed through the wall as it tumbled down a bluff. Of course he’d keep it, though: you can’t get rid of a 55-ton rock very easily, right?

The house, which sits right along Highway 35 and the Great River Road, is open for public viewing April through October. The front of the house looks unremarkable; the back is where the action is. The boulder just sits there, nestled just inside of where the back living wall used to be. You can walk up to it, inspect it, and even check out the inside of the house, which remains essentially as it was in 1995 when the boulder crashed into it. In that sense, it functions somewhat like a time capsule (and we assume any Internet the house had was dial-up.) A $2 admission fee is suggested and paid on the honor system. Also inside the house are clippings of newspaper coverage of the 1995 incident and, strangely, a similar incident that happened in 1909 when a boulder crashed into the house that had previously stood on the site. We’re sensing a pattern here.

The house is open daily from 10am to 6pm from April through October. A small parking lot is adjacent to the house right along Highway 35. It’s a quirky stop for sure, along Wisconsin’s Great River Road!