Blue Crab Boulevard

Counterfeit Stonehenge

An Australian businessman is building a full-sized replica of Stonehenge in Australia. Ross Smith has had a team of quarry workers cutting replica stones for the past five months and plans to have the whole thing built by December 21 of this year - the summer solstice down under.

"I'm doing it because I can," said Ross Smith, the former owner of a successful microbrewery business who plans to build the monument on his property in Western Australia. "Nowhere in the world has a complete Stonehenge been built."

The $1.26 million project, to be called The Henge, will include 101 granite stones arranged in an inner and outer circle, a central altar, and will span 110 feet.

"I've studied plans of the original and that's what The Henge will look like," Smith said.

Unlike the original Stonehenge, guests will be encouraged to touch and play around the new monument, which will also have an interpretive center and a children's playground.

Smith called The Henge "a business venture." An entry fee will be charged and it will be hired out for weddings and other events.

Actually, I'm surprised nobody has done this before. (One waits breathlessly for the howls of outrage from fake druids over the fake Stonehenge.) Smith is hoping for 200,000 to 300,000 visitors annually. Hmmm. Maybe we should get one of these for the garden here at the Crabitat. Nah - too much to mow around.

Weird Stuff, World news | Gaius Tuesday, 25 March , 2008

By Sam Wah, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 7:39 am

Put it on a concrete pad–there’ll be only one edge to trim.Me, now, I’d worry the neighbors would call it an "attractive nuisance" and insist on my having $1 billion liability insurance against any big rocks falling over or off.
By Ross Smith, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 8:13 am

I’m the guy building the new Henge in Margaret River. I can’t wait to hear from the fake druids (that’s really funny) given that the actual Stonehenge pre-dated the Celtic Druids by a few thousand years. If my history serves me well I’m pretty sure that the Roman Legions wiped out the few remaining Druids during their last stand on a little island.
I was planning on using sheep to keep it mowed!
It’ll look great at the bottom of my garden!
By Eric, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 8:13 am

There is already a "complete stonehenge built" in the U.S., there is one in Northern Montana in a town called Fortine, it is a full scale replica of Stonehenge and it is built to have the sun on the Summer solitice hit the alter rock at sunrise. It is located on a private golf course and was built a few years ago. They have poured concrete and rebar to reinforce it so you can touch it and move around inside the circles. I’ve been there many times and it is a beautiful place.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 8:48 am

One waits breathlessly for the howls of outrage from fake druids over the fake Stonehenge.

You jest, but it could happen. Having watched the MSM transform fundamentalist Islam from a 7th century misogynist barbarism to a modern "religion of peace" in dire need of protection from "hate crimes", nothing would surprise me anymore.
By Larry Sheldon, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 9:06 am

"Nowhere in the world has a complete Stonehenge been built."Really?http://www.carhenge.com/
By Stix, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 10:33 am

There are many similar things around the World like Stonehenge. At the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois across the river fro St. Louis,we got Woodhenge. It is very similar to Stonhenge, but it is made out of wood. This was made by the Cahoklian Inida, who are realtives to the Aztecs that formed in Mexico.
By Stix, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 10:34 am

Cahokian Indians that is.
By Mockinbird, Tuesday, 25 March , 2008 @ 12:03 pm

There could be dancing.