Editing Montebello, New York (section)

===Indian Rock===
[[image:IndianRock.JPG|thumb|right|alt=Indian Rock in the Village of Montebello, New York|Indian Rock in the Village of Montebello, New York]]
Indian Rock is a large [[glacial erratic]] boulder of [[granite]] [[gneiss]], formed in the [[Proterozoic]] ([[Precambrian]]) era, 1.2&nbsp;billion to 800&nbsp;million years ago. It is estimated to weigh ~17,300&nbsp;tons. The source area for the boulder was nearby in the [[Ramapo Mountains]]-[[Hudson Highlands]]; it is difficult to know for certain exactly where it was picked up by the glacier, but most likely not more than 5 to 10 kilometers from its current location. The boulder rests upon [[glacial outwash]] which in turn lies atop [[Triassic]] sedimentary [[red bed]]s (sandstone and shale) of the [[Newark Basin]] (circa 145&nbsp;million years old). The rock was carried to its current location by the internal flow of the continental ice sheet during the last glacial maximum, circa 21,000&nbsp;years ago. The base of the continental glacier scoured the bedrock terrain across which it moved, thus plucking large and small blocks of rock from their position in the Ramapo Mountains and Hudson Highlands. Indian Rock got as far as Rockland County before being liberated by the ice and deposited along with gravels shifted by glacial meltwater.

Although Indian Rock may appear to be several rocks piled together, it actually originated as a single boulder ({{convert|18|ft}} by {{convert|9|ft}} by {{convert|15|ft}}). Weaknesses within the rock caused by [[foliation (geology)|foliation]] and naturally occurring fractures serve as avenues for moisture infiltration. With repeated freeze-thaw cycles, this moisture expands to exert forces up to 20,000&nbsp;lbs/inch2 along the planes of weakness, thus wedging the rock apart. [[Glacial polish]], [[glacial striation|striations]] and grooves commonly found on erratics of this size have for the most part been effaced by the normal process of decomposition called weathering.<ref>Comments offered by P. Jay Fleisher following observations on Sunday, December 7, 2008</ref>

When The Kakiat Indians were abandoning their ancestral hunting grounds in the early eighteenth century, they stopped at Indian Rock and laid their last offerings and partook in a final feast in the land of their birth and traveled westward for a brief period of time where they would be unmolested by the white man.