This magical site near the Mississippi pays homage to Stonehenge-style megalithic structures

Off a quiet rural road on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River, curious travelers find themselves lingering much longer than expected at Kinstone — a Midwestern homage to Britain's ancient stone circles such as Stonehenge.

Visitors study interpretive signs while navigating the spirals of a labyrinth, search for the natural question mark on a rock in the Circle of Mysteries, stop and think in the shaded space beneath a dolmen, and stand in the long shadows cast by the columns. of the Great Circle of Stones.

Kinstone today goes beyond this singular rock circle originally imagined by creator Kristine Beck. As she researched with her sisters in England and contacted experts, their efforts filled the 30-acre property with more than a dozen megalithic-style rock installations.

This plot of Driftless Area land near the village of Fountain City, Wisconsin, 5 miles from Winona, Minnesota, was once his family's small dairy farm. Beck, who later founded and sold a software technology company, remembers having to pick rocks that popped out of the ground every spring and thinking they looked almost like plants sprouting from the earth.

She also remembers her father pulling out a large rock with his tractor and discovering remains of fossilized coral.

“My father was very attuned to nature. He knew so much about trees and rocks and flowers and plants,” said Beck, who purchased the 30-acre family farm in 1994 to preserve a steep north-facing hill.

“Stones and I have had a relationship since I was little,” she said. “There’s something here that I feel very connected to.”

His idea for creating a stone circle grew out of his long-standing fascination with stone structures around the world, including European stone circles and dolmens, Middle Eastern pyramids, South American temples and shrines. Asians. These are all places so ancient with rocks so large that no one can fully explain how they were mined and moved by early civilizations. They are also often aligned with astrological events.

“I love the mystery of it,” she said.

Feel an energy

She enlisted the expertise of the late Ivan McBeth, a practicing Druid who lived in Vermont; permaculture designer Wayne Weiseman; and granite specialists who helped her find and choose pieces of rock primarily from the St. Cloud and Rockville, Minnesota, area. Flatbed trailers delivered 21 loads of stone, with pieces weighing 6,000 to 52,000 pounds and rising 7 to 27 feet. It took a 90-ton all-terrain crane to put everything in place in 2011.

“I really wanted granite. It's a paramagnetic stone,” said Beck, who studied chemistry as well as computer science. Granite can align with the Earth's magnetic pull and is made largely of quartz, used in watches because it has a measurable frequency.

“I think that’s what people feel,” she said, explaining the feeling of energy that some people describe at the stone circles.

In the decade since the original stone installations, the landscape was restored to native meadows and planted with oaks, and Beck coordinated hands-on workshops that built a hut and oven out of straw and clay, created raised gardens and a food forest. , and assembled a dry-stacked limestone sculpture that frames the spring and autumn equinox sunrises in its round windows.

The small Chapel of Creation is constructed from cross-sections of cordwood and 450 glass bottles glow with colorful light, while the thatched roof made with locally harvested overgrown water reeds keeps it dry inside.

Visitors arriving at 5:15 a.m. of the summer solstice on June 20 can watch the sun rise through a corridor of the Great Stone Circle on the longest day of the year. Kinstone also hosts open houses in the spring and fall (the next one is scheduled for October 6).

The most common comment from visitors echoes Beck's own impression of what happened when she was able to bring together a diverse group of experts.

“It’s bigger and more magnificent than they imagined,” she said.

Kinstone remains open until October 31 and is $10 per person. Find more information at kinstonecircle.com.

Where to Eat in Fountain City

Located at the crossroads of the Mississippi, the railroad tracks and the Great River Road, Monarch's Public House claims to be the oldest continuously operating tavern in Wisconsin. Look for Irish specialties including Irish stew, corned beef plate, Galway pot pie, bangers and mash (monarchtavern.com).

Golden Frog Restaurant and Lounge serves roast chicken, burgers, pizza and frog legs. On the other side of the road, its seasonal counter service Nenuphar prepares wood-fired pizzas on the weekends. It features a playground and sandbox, sand volleyball court, and river views (thegoldenfrog.com).

Where to stay

The city of the fountain Hawk's View Chalets, Lodges and Suites rents cliffside accommodations, as well as suites above a renovated downtown print shop, and offers wine tastings at nearby Seven Hawks Vineyard (hawksview.net).

Other attractions

This region along the Mississippi has long been known for its collectors and artists with unexpected passions.

Fountain City's pedal car wealth and 20,000 childhood treasures at Elmer's Antiques and Toys closed in 2022, but travelers can still stop in to see the work of self-taught folk artists at Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden and Museum. Herman Rusch created more than three dozen eclectic outdoor sculptures from concrete and shards of crockery, mirrors and other glass. Fred Schlosstein created a model of the town of Cochrane, Wisconsin, as well as some of his own sculptures (kohlerfoundation.org).

About 20 miles north on Hwy. 35, Gary Schlosstein's historical collection of arms and armor, organized by era, can be viewed at Castlerock Museum in Alma, Wisconsin.

The new edition of “Day Trips From the Twin Cities” by Lisa Meyers McClintick, a freelance writer based in St. Cloud, appears June 4.