BIG ROCKS

The town of Arborg, Manitoba, lays claim to having the world’s largest curling rock. Located 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg, the town of 1,021 erected the stone in 2006 in hopes of using it as a drawing card for passersby. The stone weighs in at a tonne and a half, measures 4.2 metres across and 2.1 metres tall and is made of steel, foam, and fibreglass.

This oversized rock is just a little bigger than the previous record holder located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Known as the Lakehead Rock, that stone, which measures in at six and a half feet high and almost six feet in diameter and is made of concrete, was built to celebrate the 1960 Brier held in Thunder Bay. It held the record for more than 40 years, and many residents weren’t impressed with being overtaken by the Arborg stone. When asked about the new record holder, Alf Childs, the Thunder Bay stone’s caretaker, told the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal: “That’s an affront to granite right there.”