Your "stones" History

Think it would be interesting to know a wee bit of history regarding some of the stones thrown at games.

For example:

• The Pleasanton Stone - 25+#?? -- the round cannon ball one??
• The Portland Stone -- 96#er if I remember right??
• The Celtic Braemar Stone -- how long's it been around?
• The Big Braemar Stone at Estes Park -- think close to 30# -- Still used?
• Enumclaw's volcanic looking beast of an open stone, looks like it will tear chunks of your face off, but, quite fun to throw. . .
• Mesa's big 24.5# Braemar Stone. . .
• Any stone, any game....

For us, in Utah, we have a few to mention.

• My 85#er that we throw at mini-strongman games and for fun.  It's now been thrown at the Friday Mini-Strongman for 4 years and will be there again this year.   I am betting it has been thrown several miles, a bit at a time.  It is a rectangular stone cut from the same quarry that the granite blocks were taken to build the Salt Lake Temple.  It was cut earlier than those used at the Temple and was used as part of the foundation of an old Pioneer Log Cabin.  I have about 15 of these blocks that were used for the same purpose.  The largest one we have as a bench in the back yard.  It weighs well over 750#.
• The second stone was the one used for many years by Highland Gamers just as I was getting involved.  It was light at 18# and used as the Braemar.  It was used at previous Scot Fest's, but I retired it when I took over as A.D. of that game due to being too light for a legit Braemar.
• Now, each Utah Game has it's own set of Braemar and Open Stones, which makes it fun to get used to and throw.

Would love to hear of your particular History. . .

 

ohhh one more stone... Stevie Pulcinella told me it was his favorite !
a certain Ad from New England loves this stone -uses it in all his games-but everyone hates it-its hideous-horrible..it is the MacDonald half turtle stone 19+ lbs

Borges wrote: The old SAAA 20.2# egg shaped Braemar stone. I hated that f**king rock. God bless the person who sent that evil thing back to Hades from whence it came.

 

Ok, now, I quite liked that stone.  I was sad when I went to a game and heard of it's demise. 

I had heard that instead of getting on the truck with the other equipment it ended up in a strategically placed garbage can covered in an athletic towel.

I even heard a name associated with it's disappearance, but it's all hear-say, so I won't spread gossip

 

I heard that it didn't get on the truck with the other equipment because it was deeply depressed from years of misleading folks by calliing itself "twenty two" when in fact it was only "twenty, two". It felt unrelenting guilt for years of unfairly skewing the West Coast  athlete's Braemar rankings. Unable to live with the shame of its misdeeds, it found peace the only way it could, by casting itself to the bottom of the lake at the Fresno games. No note was found.

22.1 Braemar - got it out of Barton Springs here in Austin - the only running water in central Texas - Ed hates it 'cause it looks like he has 2 heads

and the stone scored 16 points higher on the Stanford-Binet.

Mike Baab mentioned these, but....

For the southern guys (mostly Florida and Georgia) we have been throwing a 22# round hunk of granite for years. The stone belongs to Herman Ibach, and is usually referred to as "Herman's Head", the "Bowling Ball", or "The Human Head".

Starting in 2005, we started throwing the Dunedin Stone as an extra event at the Dunedin Highland games. This stone is 100#, and is kind of shaped like a heart. We even built an "arc" to carry the stone around in. Mike Baab still holds the record at 15' 2". Every year, who ever wins the Dunedin Stone challenge will have his (or her) name added to the arc.

There is even a webpage dedicated to it:
http://www.flscottishgames.com/dun_stone.html

Here is Mike's winning 2005 throw:




Edited by KTDupuis

M-BAAB Senior Member Joined: 8/30/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 1337

Posted: 3/22/07 at 4:00pm | IP Logged '"I'd like to know where they got two cannonballs = the Arlington braemar and Herman's head - Dunedin.......I went to the now defunct Cumberland Gap games a few years back and they had the MOST perfect open ever - I believe it's the stone Dave Lyttle used to break the Chief's 20 year old 40+ record. " Owww, Mike.  Geez, did you just suggest that I would be 60 years old? Chief

I'll admit to having my butt kicked a few times in my day, but nothing like what happened when I encountered the portland stone.

aaahhhh the Portland stone. I believe the Sandy River spit that mother out. 97lbs of solid rock - the Queen should be able to give a history lesson on it. What do you say Queen... do you have your ears on?

i'm sorry find a handle on the pleasanton braemar stone and you win.

12 yrs. at p-town still no handle. [and you all no how much i love the stones]

Apologies Chief - 13 year old record .EVERYONE!!! CHIEF IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO 60!!!!.......Kevin - you're a good boy ........Myles - see the bloody tape on my hand - I was REALLY pissed at tearing off some bark and took it out on the rock ..........John & Carlos - BWaaaaagh!

Awww hell momma - they done got me figured out.

I was out power walking w. the lovely wife last night (be quiet, I'm "mature" and need to keep the ticker strong) ............and the neighbors put in some new landscaping and got a bucket load of river stones.....saw a honey...........hehehehe...got my ninja outfit all set....hiya!!! 

 

If a stone can be as big as Brent's brain holder you know it is big..  THis is the Mesa stone..  I have no idea how it came about maybe Doria can tell us ..   But I know more stories about how I have to guard it or it will end up in a garbage can before the games are over each year..  It is like throwing 25lbs of chewed bubble gum..  John Godina came out to one of our practices and he said he wanted to give it a try..  he actually spun with it it flew out pretty good and then he said what was that that "killed my hand" 

I told him the key to it is not to be so explosive with it be happy throwing it 25' and it really does not hurt that bad  HAHAHAHAH!!

Edited by seckmrl

The Pleasanton Braemar (26.6lbs) is hated by most everyone that tries it; rough as a cob and without a "handle". Guaranteed to eat up your neck, I think Ryan V. still has the scars from it  . Both the stones go back as long as I can remember (25 yrs.) and have been tossed by all the greats from Brian Oldfield, Geoff Capes, Jim MCGoldrick and Bill Anderson to Petur Gundmundson, Ryan Vierra, Greg Trafalis and Matt Sandford to name but a few... The "missing in action" SAAA 20.2 Braemar was brought back from Scotland( along with the current SHA open stone) by Rod McKenzie sometime in the 70's. I can still see the disappointment on Petur Gundmundson's face in Costa Mesa after he tossed the SAAA Braemar to what he thought was a 22lbs. World record and I had to tell him it was actually 20.2 lbs.