Stonehenge has been mesmerizing humans since it was built some 4,500 years ago. Is it any wonder that a replica of the world’s most famous prehistoric structure on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa would attract more than a little attention?
Instead of towering above the featureless Salisbury Plain in southern England, the Odessa Stonehenge sticks out among the strip malls of this oil town. The massive blocks blend with the sunburned brown of the desert and are covered with mesquite bushes on one side. On the other side, the replica sits in contrast with our society’s monuments of a Home Depot, OfficeMax, and Starbucks. Perhaps centuries from now, historians will be baffled by the purpose of these perfectly aligned stones.
The project began several years ago as a dream among three friends, as Chris Stanley, chairman of UTPB’s Department of Humanities and Fine Arts, informed the press after the Permian Basin Stonehenge was built. Professor Stanley told his friend Dick Gillham, a retired contractor, about having art students make models of the original Stonehenge.
There is no telling how much liquid creativity flowed as the two conjured up a plan to bring Stonehenge to West Texas. The idea gained traction when Connie Edwards, owner of a local rock quarry and another Stonehenge fan, offered to provide the rocks.
The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved the project, and the stones were set in the summer of 2004. The replica takes up a little more than a quarter acre next to the art building and re-creates Stonehenge as it stands today. The horizontal dimensions match the original’s footprint, but the height of the Texas version is only 70% of the English version. The tallest stone of the prehistoric relic is 22 feet, and the Odessa replica tops out at 19 feet.
The local version is made of a cream-colored limestone that is pockmarked with fossils and shells left by the shallow sea that once covered much of Texas. To trim costs, each vertical piece was made from two 20- to 40-ton blocks instead of one 50- to 90-ton block. The vertical columns that are missing their massive horizontal lintels are complete with tenons, just like the original.
Scientists estimate that the original was constructed over a 2,000-year period and was abandoned around 1500BC. It took modern technology about six weeks to complete the concrete foundation and position the 44 stones. Both Stonehenges are aligned with the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset.
The Permian Basin Stonehenge is off 42nd Street in northeastern Odessa. Besides being a roadside attraction that is dramatically lit at night, the replica is a classroom prop for art, architecture, math, and history students. There is no charge to walk around the monument.
896th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of “Day Trips” 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
This article appears in September 5 • 2008.
