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One man�s rock, another�s history Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Yard work is not a big issue for Cliff Schleigh, whose Medford home sits atop a rock that dates back 50 million years. Highland Drive formation 50 million years old, geology teacher says By Mark Freeman Cliff Schleigh doesn�t need a manicured lawn and rows of pansies to make his front yard stand out from others in Medford. He owns a huge chunk of Rogue Valley geological history. Schleigh�s home at 400 Highland Drive is one of the better-known chunks of east Medford real estate because his front yard is a massive mound of sandstone that geologists consider to be one of the better remnants of what the valley was like 50 million years ago. His entire front yard is engulfed by this huge heap of incredibly hard sandstone peppered with marble-sized gravel. It rises above Highland Drive like a mini-mountain that can fit on a single tax lot. "It�s quite a conversation piece," says Schleigh, a 90-year-old retired carpenter. "I think some people stop at my garage sales just to ask me about my rock. All I can tell them is, it�s a pretty big rock." It�s also a pretty big revelation, not only of the geological history of the valley but its present and future as well, says John Kline, a geologist and science teacher from Hedrick Middle School. The formation is actually the tip of what is likely a large piece of sandstone created 50 million years ago. A fast and powerful river snaked through the region when it was a sub-tropical forest of palm trees and young coal deposits. That was during the Eocene, a time far closer to the dinosaurs than to today, Kline says. Schleigh�s land was once the bottom of this fast river and represented the low point of the area, Kline says. Over time, the river disappeared and the natural cements within the sandstone forged the incredibly dense and hard stone , he says. Over the ensuing millions of years, weather eroded away the rest of the material around the rock, because the softer stones and dirt were more easily eroded than Schleigh�s rock, Kline says. Eventually, the rock that was once the bottom of the valley became a hill. This process, which is the same that formed the Table Rocks, is called inverted topography. Areas like the hill beneath the Rogue Valley Manor are chunks of this sandstone, and Schleigh�s lot is one of perhaps a dozen or so where the sandstone pokes through the east Medford topsoil. "This is the most dramatic of them that I�ve seen, in part because of its proximity to the road," Kline says. "I�ve driven by this rock for years, and I�ve always wanted to stop," Kline says. "That�s a nice rock." Schleigh didn�t always think so. A carpenter and demolitions expert living in Medford since 1925, Schleigh recalls driving down Highland Drive in 1964 as the house was being built on the back end of the exposed sandstone. "I thought that guy was crazy to be building a house on top of a rock," Schleigh says. But in 1990, when the house was a run-down rental on the market for a song, it didn�t seem too crazy. Schleigh bought it, hauled dirt on top of the rock and started growing vegetables that would ripen weeks before others in the area because the soil was always warmed by sun-cooked rock. Five years ago, the rock farming grew too troublesome for Schleigh. So he stripped away most of the topsoil to leave the rock bare, except for a small patch of grass, a protruding catalpa tree and the occasional weed hunkered into a dirt-filled crevice. And the reputation of the house with the big rock for the front lawn has grown to a point where he no longer has to give out directions, or even his address, to visitors. "It�s been a handy place to live," he says. "I just tell them, it�s the house with the big rock in front." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA