The largest of the parks "elephants", named Dumbo, leads a train at the top of the hill.

Elephant Rocks State Park in the U.S. state of Missouri centers around an outcropping of Precambrian granite in the Saint Francois Mountains. It is named for a string of large granite boulders which resemble a train of pink circus elephants. A U.S. state is any one of the 50 states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, together with the District of Columbia, form the United States of America. ... Missouri, named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning canoe, is a Midwestern state of the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. ... The Precambrian or Cryptozoic is the period of the geologic timescale from the formation of Earth around 4500 million years before the present (BP) to the evolution of abundant macroscopic hard-shelled fossils, which marked the beginning of the Cambrian, some 542 million years BP. Remarkably little is known about... Granite is a common and widely-occurring group of intrusive felsic igneous rocks that form at great depths and pressures under continents. ... This shaded-relief map shows the location and extent of the St. ... The term circus originates from Latin and can mean several things: A public equipped space for shows and other spectacles of the Classical period (e. ... Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Stegodon (extinct) Deinotherium (extinct) Mammuthus (extinct) Elephantidae (the elephants) is the only extant family in the order Proboscidea. ...

The park has thirty picnic sites and a one mile (2 km) circular interpretive trail in the Elephant Rocks Natural Area. This trail is called the Braille Trail and is unique among Missouri state parks in being designed specifically for visitors with visual and physical handicaps. There is no camping permited at this park, but several other state parks in the vicinity have camping facilities.

Geologically, Elephant Rocks State Park consists of a tor, which is a high, isolated rocky peak, usually of jointed and weathered granite. The alkali granite here was formed in the Proterozoic 1500 million years ago from a dome of molten magma. Nearly vertical fractures formed in the stone as it cooled, and uplift of the formation enhanced the fracturing. Eventually the overlying strata was removed through erosion, exposing the granite. With exposure, water and ice worked to weather and erode the surface of the granite and to expand the fracture joints. Eons of weathering produced the rounded boulders that are the park's signature. For articles about other uses of tor, see Tor (disambiguation). ... In geology, the Proterozoic is an eon prior to the first abundant complex life on earth. ... This article is about the type of molten rock. ... Interstate road cut through limestone and shale strata in eastern Tennessee In geology and related fields, a stratum (plural: strata) is a layer of rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes it from contiguous layers. ...

The reddish or pink granite has been quarried since 1869. Two abandoned granite quarries are on the site. These and others nearby have provided red architectural granite for buildings in states from Massachusetts to California, but most particularly in St. Louis, including stone for the piers of the Eads Bridge. Stones unsuitable for architectural use were made into shoebox-sized paving stones that were used on the streets of St. Louis as well as on its wharf on the Mississippi river. Stone quarried in the area currently is used for mortuary monuments and is know commercially as Missouri Red monument stone. 1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney Official languages English Area 27,360 km² (44th)  - Land 20,317 km²  - Water 7,043 km² (25. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... The Eads Bridge after being struck by a tornado. ... A wharf (plural wharfs, or (especially in American English) wharves, collectively wharfing or wharfage) is a fixed platform, commonly on pilings, roughly parallel to and alongside navigable water, where ships are loaded and unloaded. ... Length 6,270 km Elevation of the source 450 m Average discharge Saint Louis¹: 5,500 m³/s Vicksburg²: 16,800 m³/s Baton Rouge³: 12,800 m³/s Area watershed 2,980,000 km² Origin Lake Itasca Mouth Gulf of Mexico Basin countries United States (98. ...

External links

• Elephant Rocks State Park official website
• Elephant Rocks State Park page of Science Education at Pittsburgh State University[1]