The West Maple Omaha Rock (nicknamed Rocko, also referred to as the west Omaha rock and similar names) is a

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

located in a

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

at the corner of West Maple Road and North 156th Street in north-western

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It became the subject of significant online discourse as well as a local tourist attraction in late 2019 after over a dozen vehicle owners drove on top of it. This included at least six that had to be towed within six weeks. The rock was originally placed on a

curb A curb (North American English), or kerb (Commonwealth English except Canada; see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway. History Although curbs have ...

to prevent people from driving over it; however, it was sloped such that it was often not visible to taller automobiles and would get stuck between their wheels. A

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

group dedicated to the rock, "The W Maple Omaha Rock", was created by employees of a nearby

UPS Store The UPS Store (formerly Mail Boxes Etc.) is a subsidiary of United Parcel Service which provides, according to its website, shipping, shredding, printing, fax, passport photos, personal and business mailboxes, and notary services. Histo ...

and had over 25,000 followers in November 2019; a

subreddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

and

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

listing were also created. In January 2021, the rock was repositioned such that it was no longer sloped towards the road and a tree was planted near it to catch drivers' attention.

References

External links

The W Maple Omaha Rock Facebook group

Google Street View of the rock in June 2021
{{Omaha-stub Omaha, Nebraska Individual rocks