Campus Life

Presentation at Penn State DuBois to highlight local landmark Scripture Rocks

An inscribed rock at the scripture rocks site. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

DUBOIS, Pa. — Kenneth Burkett, executive director of the Jefferson County History Center, will offer a presentation on the local attraction called Scripture Rocks at noon on Tuesday, April 10, in the campus library at Penn State DuBois, located on the second floor of the Hiller Building. This event is free and open to the public.

Burkett will present the life story of Douglas Monroe Stahlman, who inscribed biblical passages on the rocks, which are located just outside of Brookville, and explore his personal "divine calling" during the early 1900s. Through the rocks themselves, and Stahlman's personal journal, Burkett attempts to understand the carver's perception of religion with a slightly different twist.

The Scripture Rocks Recording Project was jointly initiated by the Jefferson County History Center and the North Fork Chapter 29 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology in 2009, and funded in part by the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. Its purpose is to rediscover, document and map the scripture rocks in order to provide a permanent record to help save them for the future, and to develop plans for Scripture Rocks Heritage Park.

In addition to working as the executive director of the Jefferson County History Center in Brookville, Burkett is a field associate archaeologist with the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. He is best known for his extensive work on the late prehistoric Fishbasket village sites in Clarion and Armstrong counties, and petroglyph studies within the Allegheny River Basin.

Last Updated March 22, 2018