Confederate Rock gets new home in Boone County

An 11,000-pound boulder serving as a memorial to Boone County residents who fought for the South in the Civil War is getting a new home at the Battle of Centralia historic site.

The hunk of granite, known as Confederate Rock, was removed early Saturday from the lawn of the Boone County Courthouse, where it’s sat since 1975. The United Daughters of the Confederacy’s John Sappington Marmaduke chapter donated the rock to the city of Columbia in 1935.

The Boone County Commission decided to move Confederate Rock in response to an online petition seeking its removal from government property.

The shooting rampage at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, has sparked a debate over the use and meaning of Confederate symbols.