An igneous hero: Antelope gets sedimental about its version of ‘Rocky’

One winter day in Antelope, a do-gooder named Gina Schaeffer decided to go check on her quiet friend Rocky while she was out on errands. She’d checked on him the day before; once again, Schaeffer found him sitting comfortably with a big smile on his face and arms outstretched with Valentine’s decorations surrounding him. She snapped some pictures for a locally popular Facebook group dedicated to Rocky’s well-being before going home.

Ten minutes later she got a notification from the online group: Her pal Rocky had been hit by a car, with most of his outfit taken out. The comments lamented a picture showing a car sitting atop the rock.

Yes, Rocky is a rock star.

Antelope is a commuter town precisely 30 minutes northeast of the bustling capital, just north of the neighboring city of Roseville. Antelope businesses are clumped together in the center of town where it houses restaurants like Little Caesars and Poke Town. In that center, the famous rock sits proudly to the left of the local Rite-Aid in the middle of a median.

Rocky became a local meme after “Antelope Rock,” a public Facebook Group was created on April 21, 2021, by Natalie Macias. And, as the recent mishap showed, Rocky is very prone to being hit by vehicles.

“There were so many people hitting him and I wanted to bring awareness, but in kind of a funny way,” Macias said. “I saw people hit him probably like twice a month for I don’t even know how many years.”

Since the founding of the group, Rocky’s followers have grown to over 1,000 members who share their interactions with Rocky, whether it be posting selfies or pictures of a different car or truck sitting on top of him.

Hardening opinions

Members of the group also began to point out Rocky’s face-like features. Could previous road disasters have made him look that way?

The discussion about his features got Gina Schaeffer thinking: “Well, I can easily make some googly eyes and stick them in there.”

Schaeffer is now a member of Rocky’s unofficial wardrobe team. Since then, the group’s membership has taken off.

After years of cars repeatedly running over the sedimentary citizen of Antelope, the Facebook group decided it was time the community put a name to the new face that Schaeffer created.

In April of last year, Macias posted a poll about what to name the rock.

Dwayne Rock Johnson, Hannibal Rockster, Oliver Stoned were in the mix. But with 26 votes, “Rocky” was the clear winner.

As the rock gained fame among many Antelope residents and their extended families, he experienced more visitors, even those who don’t live in the neighborhood come to pay their respects.

“I have a friend who is a limo driver and he stops by, he parks there and takes pictures with Rocky,” Macias said.

Not every driver escapes an encounter with Rocky without a scratch. Though many of Rocky’s recent victims have yet to come forward on the Facebook page, some have admitted their run-ins from a long time ago.

“He did get one of our stylists, she no longer uses that entrance,” said Ellie Smith, the manager of the Great Clips hair salon in a post from January.

Great Clips, Smith said, used their own sign to add to his decorations. Other businesses have shown their appreciation for Rocky after he was featured on the Antelope Business Community Facebook page in December.

Many commenters on the post about the February run-in pointed out that he had gone his longest-recorded stretch without being hit. The record was 49 days.

Dressed for success

The wardrobe team has Rocky now dressed as a shamROCK after a discussion about St. Patrick’s Day.

“As a group, we have DM going on between four or five people that we call his wardrobe team, we discuss [decorations],” Schaeffer said. “He will most likely be dressed for each holiday or occasion.”

Dressing up Rocky may seem like a fun addition to Rocky’s personality but it is also one with purpose.

“We are trying to figure out how to do that without hampering visibility but still drawing attention to him at the same time because really the main focus is to keep cars off of him,” Schaeffer said.

Without Rocky being in that spot, many cars would have driven over a median and into the cars that are often parked in the spot right next to it.

“Rocky’s a superhero, trying to bring safety (to the community),” Macias said.

Rocky’s superhero acts do, however, come with a price. Not only does that price usually mean a wardrobe malfunction, but also the constant threat of removal.

“I hope he stays there, I hope he doesn’t disappear sometime in the night,” Schaeffer said. “That’s one of my fears, somebody’s going to get shifty and say ‘Ya know what, that darn rock needs to go.’ ”

Regardless of certain people wanting to remove Rocky, his impact is clear. People in the community go out of their way to have a beer with him or take selfies.

One member of the Facebook group, Rodney Sparks, even writes and sings songs about Rocky. His recent, “Rock Rock Baby!” is Rocky’s version of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” His version, though, tells the story of Rocky from a first-person perspective; the post about the song features photos of multiple cars sitting on Rocky’s face.

“I even get decorated with colors so bright and still bag idiots who can’t hang a right. And if you are the problem, yo, I’ll solve you. Check out the hook, let the tow truck dislodge you,” Sparks raps.