Lyon County Freedom Rock

In the far northwest corner of Iowa sits this painted boulder, Lyon County's entry in the Iowa Freedom Rock Tour. The whole project began in nineteen ninety-nine, when a teenager from Greenfield named Ray Sorensen, nicknamed Bubba, watched the film Saving Private Ryan and decided to thank veterans by painting a twelve-foot rock with patriotic scenes for Memorial Day. He repainted it every year after.

Starting in twenty thirteen, he set out to paint one Freedom Rock in each of Iowa's ninety-nine counties, each unique and honoring veterans chosen by a local committee. He completed the entire set by twenty twenty-one. From the original boulder near Greenfield to this rock near the South Dakota line, the tour stitched together a statewide tribute, one county and one coat of paint at a time.