De Trekkerskei - Schoonloo

If you are in the village centre of Schoonloo, you can't avoid it: The Trekkerskei flaunts there at the junction of Hoofdstraat and Westdorperstraat. The huge, prehistoric boulder was discovered in 1966 and pulled above ground. It weighs a whopping 25,000 kilos!

Surrounding villages were keen to display the boulder in their villages. First, the boulder ended up in Rolde, where local youngsters tried to dig in the stone at the first turn of the year. This was only half successful. For years, the stone lay half underground in front of Rolde's former primary school.

In 1987, Rolde celebrated its 800th anniversary. On the occasion of this anniversary, the stone was dug out again and moved a few metres further. But even that turned out not to be the right place for the boulder. Both Grolloo and Schoonloo wanted the boulder.

In 1994, the decision was finally made to bring the boulder back to the village where it was found: Schoonloo. On 20 May 1994, the stone was unveiled under its new name: De Trekkerskei (The Puller's Boulder). The name is derived from the fact that so many people pulled on the boulder.

Photo to illustrate.