There's a famous home in Spring Green, Wisconsin, known as the House on the Rock.

But fourteen years ago, a Western Wisconsin home gained notoriety when a rock rolled into it.

In tonight's Wandering Wisconsin, Sarah Stokes takes us to Fountain City's Rock in the House.

Sarah: I'm standing in what used to be someone's bedroom until a day in April of 1995 when this giant piece of limestone came rolling down the hill out of nowhere. Now this floral wallpapered bedroom is the bedrock of a tourist attraction.

"Dwight and Maxine Anderson lived here. She says they got up about 8:30 and had breakfast and read the paper," says Frances Burt.

They had no idea that soon,

"it came down just like a wheel"

a force of nature would force them out.

"She was standing by the kitchen door and she heard some noise and thought, oh it sounds like thunder, but it was a nice day and just like that the rock came down into the bedroom," Burt says.

A close call that trapped her in the home for a bit.

"All the doors were jammed, she couldn't get out," Burt added.

A witness helped her get out, and within a matter of minutes, people started rolling in to see this rock.

Burt recalls, "everybody was curious about it. It was pretty much the talk of the town."

And the talk of the country, which is why Frances Burt and her husband bought the home from the Anderson's.

"At first we had a lot of people here. We were on the Today Show and in People Magazine," she says.

She says the interest has dwindled, and they actually lose money on the house, but they keep it going, because it's quite the keepsake.

"It's kind of a historic thing for fountain city," Burt said.

Frances still tells the story to cars full of curious tourists.

"Sometimes they walk right past it, they think it's a wall. It almost does look like a stucco wall, so they walk right past it, then they realize it's the rock."

Engineers think it weighs 55 tons and think it came from a bluff 500 feet up the hill from the home.

She showed us around the bedroom:
"They had their dresser right here. You can see some stuffing from their comforter."

And while there's nothing comforting about a giant rock in your house, Frances says it hasn't moved a bit in all these years, but it has moved people.

"Sometimes people cry about it, or they just laugh and say I don't mean to laugh or don't mean to cry."

Sarah: If you want to come check out the Rock in the House you can do that from about April to October when the weather is warm. Admission is $1 but it is on an honor system, you just leave your money in a box at the front door. It's open 7 days a week, from about 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you go, you'll be taking a self-guided tour.

The Rock in the House doesn't have a website, but here's the phone number: 608-687-3553