RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Foamhenge is getting a new home.
The offbeat Rockbridge County attraction has been sold and eventually will be relocated to a family farm near Centreville in Northern Virginia, said Mark Cline, the artist who created and maintained Foamhenge.
Foamhenge was to be moved from its location on a hillside just off U.S. 11 north of Natural Bridge.
Foamhenge, a beaded-foam reproduction of Stonehenge that Cline created as an April Fools’ stunt in 2004 and captured the imagination of travelers from around the world, needed to be relocated because it sat on property that will become part of the new Natural Bridge State Park, and state officials have said Foamhenge does not “fit” with the mission of a state park.
So Cline contemplated selling Foamhenge, giving it away or dumping it in a landfill. He received more than 50 inquiries from around the country. He’d hoped it would wind up elsewhere in Rockbridge County, but things didn’t work out with local towns. He had calls from around Virginia as well as Florida, Nebraska and Alabama. An airport was interested, as was a botanical garden and even a Moose Lodge. However, Cline said no place seemed as good a fit as Cox Farms, the new owner.
Cox Farms is a 116-acre family-run farm and business in a rare, undeveloped corner of Fairfax County.
“They’ll be good stewards for this thing,” Cline said in a phone interview. “They have the resources and the land and the wherewithal to take it to the next level for it to survive.”
Cline said Foamhenge will be stacked on trailers today and moved up the road 1.5 miles to his Enchanted Castle Studios, where he will store the pieces until Cox Farms can move them to Northern Virginia after its busy fall season is over. Cox Farms hosts a popular fall festival each year that runs from September into November. Lucas Cox, who said his title is “co-farmer-in-chief” at Cox Farms, said the operation is “the definition of agri-tainment” when it comes to its fall festival. He said Foamhenge will fit in well as part of the festival.
“It has a cult following,” Cox said in a phone interview about Foamhenge. “We feel like we’ve got a nice little cult following, and we thought the two would mingle well.”
Foamhenge lasted far longer than Cline ever imagined when he and a few employees installed it in 2004. Cline, an artist and entertainer with an unfettered imagination, originally partnered with the private company that used to own Natural Bridge to create the Haunted Monster Museum and Dinosaur Kingdom and to build Foamhenge as a way to entice travelers off the road as a free gateway into Natural Bridge. He figured Foamhenge would run its course in a year, but the visitors and media coverage kept coming.
There was never a reason to take it down.
Until now.
“The decision was really tough,” Cline said. “The main thing is it’s going to survive, it’s going to have a good home and people will be able to enjoy it for years to come.”
___
Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, https://www.timesdispatch.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.