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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Home Design -> Rocks of the Front Range
The Rocks of the Front Range
By Niki Hayden
 Living in a place called the Rocky Mountains
makes one thing clear: Colorado is rich in rocks. Gold and silver mining may have
come and gone, but the quest for rocks continues.
Consider the abundance: red or buff sandstone from Lyons quarries.
Speckled granite from Golden. Round cobble from Silt’s Colorado River basin.
Moss (lichen) rocks from Colorado and Wyoming. Striated gneiss and mica-flecked
schist from Allenspark.
“Maybe other communities have the ocean, but we
have these rocks that are always above us,” says landscape architect Paul
Swenby, who designs ponds set into rock landscapes.
Colorado’s history is reflected in our rocks;
the evidence is everywhere. Cobble rocks built the foundations of
turn-of-the-century bungalows. Rocks fashioned churches and walls, pathways and
outdoor furniture. Rocks have built amphitheaters. Red and buff sandstone rocks
made the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus famous for its architectural
setting.
“My theory about Charles Klauder, the original
architect of the red rock buildings,” says Bill Deno, the Boulder University
of Colorado campus architect,
“is that he saw garden walls all around made from these red rocks.”
Perhaps the fractured edges of piled rocks reminded Klauder of a trip to Italy, where he glimpsed the Tuscan style of
building with native rock. At CU, Klauder combined his European Beaux-Arts European
training with a love for native materials.
Rocks reached a zenith in popularity from the
late 19th century through the 1930s. By the '40s, concrete took over as
the building product of choice. But a resurgence in demand for Colorado stone
began about 15 years ago and shows no sign of flagging.
“People have so much money, now,” says Dan
Rodriguez of Tribble Stone Co. outside the town of Lyons. “Railroads carry the stone all
over the country.” What locals have taken for granted is in heavy demand
elsewhere—with people willing to pay.
Moss rocks from Lyons are shipped to Vail and
Aspen to build fireplaces. The red and buff sandstone is purchased for patios,
and even indoor flooring. Fountains and ponds are popular. And, according to
Rose Swenby, moss (lichen) rock is the most sought after. “It is native and
it’s a showy rock,” she says, “it can stand on it’s own.”
For the Swenbys, that usually means that the moss
rock defines a pool setting. Paul studied landscaping in Japan, where rocks form
the backbone of many gardens. “Those rocks have to be linked like a necklace
with one side to the house, like a flagstone patio. The waterfall should be
nestled into a couple of boulders so that all the water returns to the pond.”
Then he cuts swathes of crushed rock of varying colors, fractured stones, he
says, that take on a Japanese style.
If you’d like to incorporate rocks into your
own outdoor, or indoor designs, here are some tips.
Red sandstone is increasingly difficult to come
by, but Deno says that the buff sandstone is just as beautiful. The care for
each is identical. Sandstone, especially the buff colored, is porous, so it will
stain. Usually wear and tear is of no consequence, but if a bottle of ink is
splashed on sandstone, it will leave a mark. Even so, Deno recommends a sealant
only on inside flooring. That’s because sealant tends to peel away
out-of-doors and only holds fast if it’s out of the elements.
Rodriquez says that he would only use a sealant
on a table or counter top. He uses muriatic acid to clean the surface of
sandstone. In more serious cases, such as graffiti, he recommends the material
be sandblasted.
For a sandstone floor, always choose stone
that’s at least two inches thick. The University of Colorado has one driveway
made of four-inch sandstone that trucks drive on. Deno believes that any stone
less than two inches is likely to break under everyday use. Also, pointed ends
will crack, so it’s better to lay rectangular or square-shaped rocks together
for strength rather than oddly shaped.
Swenby lays his rocks in earth or sand only;
that’s probably the most common approach. He positions the rocks so that
gravity keeps them in place.
Deno says at the University they will lay a
concrete floor, then apply a fine mesh screen and mortar in the
rocks.
If you design with moss rock, it does need care.
The moss is really lichen and requires moisture to survive.
Rodriquez says that moss (lichen) rock should be sprayed with distilled pure
water. |
