Sunday Rock, an Adirondack landmark and fixture in local lore, stands along State Highway 56 in South Colton, New York.
In the early days of settlement, Sunday Rock was seen by many as a dividing line between civilization and “the wild.” Legends of the rock were plentiful; some said beyond it time stood still, while others said it marked the boundary of organized law enforcement.
Sunday Rock has been moved a number of times in the past century to accommodate road construction and widening. Each time a group of dedicated individuals raised money to pay for the moving, and preservation, of the rock.
Today Sunday Rock stands as a symbol of all Northern New York and the Adirondacks have to offer, and a reminder of the importance of opportunity, adventure, and respect for nature.
"Be it known to all people that Sunday Rock is a glacial boulder of towering form… . And it is called Sunday Rock because in days of old when Northern New York was a frontier with Frontier as a name for hotels and banks, when everybody had wild nature for a neighbor and there was no law for deer nor any for trout and all of the woods were one grand hunting ground, in those good old times it was said that beyond this rock there was no Sunday… . It was all one glorious holiday when Tuesday night [could] just as well have been Saturday and Thursday and Wednesday could change places and Friday might begin the week for all anybody knew."
— The story behind how Sunday Rock got its name isn’t completely clear. This version, colorfully recounted by Dr. Charles H. Leete, appeared in the September 11, 1925 edition of the Potsdam Herald-Recorder and was reprinted in Sunday Rock: Its History and the Story of Its Preservation, which is viewable in the archives.
