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Abstract:
Five-Column Rock is among the most impressive of several notable fragile rock formations in southwestern Wisconsin’s unglaciated Driftless Area. Consisting of a basal sandstone plinth, a set of columns enclosing “windows”, and a tabular dolostone summit, the entire structure is over 6 m high. The Rock has not been previously studied in detail, and its origin has only generally been ascribed to weathering and eolian processes. Closer examination suggests that the feature originated as a phreatic cave developed in carbonate rocks transitional between the underlying Cambrian sandstone and the overlying Ordovician dolostones. The morphology of the feature, its stratigraphic context and its relationship to extant cave passage in the adjoining interfluvial ridge all point to a speleogenic origin, which may have broader significance for the development of similar features throughout the region.