When the band Spinal Tap sang of Stonehenge as a “magic place … where the moon doth rise with a dragon’s face” in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, the original monument had stood for some 1,600 years on the plains of Salisbury, England. But the mystery of those monoliths didn’t just capture the imagination of that fictitious rock band. Soon after that movie’s release, Missouri S&T professors Joseph Senne (civil engineering) and David Summers (mining engineering) unveiled their handiwork – a half-scale, partial reconstruction of the ancient original – on the northwest edge of campus. 

S&T Stonehenge incorporates many of the features of the original. Cut from 160 tons of granite using S&T’s waterjet technology, the monument was named one of the National Society of Professional Engineers’ 10 Outstanding Engineering Achievements for 1984. S&T Stonehenge was dedicated, appropriately, during the Summer Solstice, June 20, 1984, during an event that featured John Bevan, white-robed Druid of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, and was followed by a reception that included an edible “cheesehenge” centerpiece.