Beloved 'Giant Rock' at LaGuardia Airport Is Older Than Humanity

A large boulder christened the "giant rock" that sits at LaGuardia's International Airport in northern New York City is reportedly older than humanity.

The 1,000-ton rock that sits between the airport's LaGuardia Plaza Hotel and Hampton Inn LaGuardia by Ditmars Boulevard is five-feet high and 11-feet wide. It is believed to be 12,000 years old and was dropped at its current location by an Ice Age glacier, according to Place Matters, a project founded by City Lore and the Municipal Art Society in 1998 to identify, promote and protect places in New York City.

The boulder was named "Pet Rock" several years ago after the two hotels held a contest to name the boulder. Problem is, the rock already had a name. When the Corona-East Elmhurst Historic Preservation Society heard of the contest and the new name, officials informed the hotels that the rock already had a name: The Giant Rock.

In the wake of the revelation, the hotels decided to hold a re-christening ceremony in October 2017 for the boulder that turns out to have been a long-beloved landmark of the community of East Elmhurst. 

"Neighborhoods change, old folks pass away, kids grow up and leave and new folks come in. But, the Giant Rock remained just that, The Giant Rock, solid and stable. Those of us who grew up and played there will always refer to it as just that," a woman wrote of the boulder in a petition trying to have the name changed from the Pet Rock. 

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Gothamist notes that the plaque that now graces the site with the correct name says the rock is granite pegmatite.

"It contains pinkish white crystals of potassium feldspur up to two feet long, and smaller grains of the minerals quartz, biotite, muscovite, tourmaline, and garnet. The black tourmaline and the clear quartz are intimately intergrown on the northwestern face of the rock."