The big LACMA rock is a draw as it spends the day in Ontario
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The 340-ton boulder traveling from Riverside to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art continued to be a big crowd pleaser Thursday on the second pit spot of its 105-mile journey, this time in Ontario.
Gawkers trickled in throughout the morning to take a peek at the massive rock, the centerpiece of ‘Levitated Mass,’ a work by artist Michael Heizer that will be installed on the grounds of the county museum near its Resnick Pavilion.
“This is just a once-in-a-lifetime thing. How often do you see something like this?’ asked Terry Kuntz, 54, a seamstress from neighboring Upland. “I’m definitely taking my kids to see it when it gets to L.A.’
The rock pulled into a dirt lot west of the Ontario International Airport runway, just off Mission Boulevard, around 10 p.m. on its second leg of the trip. The rock travels only at night. The mammoth, wide-load trailer hauling the granite monolith made the 8-mile trek from its first stop in Glen Avon “without a hitch,’’ said LACMA spokeswoman Erin Wright.
PHOTOS: Giant rock rolling toward LACMA
“Everything just went beautifully last night. All they had to do was move some street signs, and things like that,’ said Wright.
Wright, wearing a bright red shirt with “Ask Me” on the front, fielded questions from the steady crowds, which numbered in the 50s throughout most of the morning. INTERACTIVE: Getting the rock ready to roll
“It’s just fantastic,’ said Leogil Rosas, a social worker who lives a few miles away in Ontario. “The way they have to transport this is just unbelievable.’
The rock heads to Chino on Thursday night and to Rowland Heights on Friday night, where it will remain throughout the weekend at the intersection of Pathfinder Road and Buttonwood Lane.
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-- Phil Willon, reporting from Ontario