FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – For more than a decade, thousands of people have traveled to buffalo county to visit Kingstone, a unique park unlike anything else in the Badger State. I recently made the trip myself to learn more about the Kinstone’s history, and the meaning behind the dozens of large stones placed throughout the park. 

“The legendary Stonehenge is thousands of miles away from Wisconsin, but you don’t need to travel that far to see a real stone circle. You can find that and much more just outside of Fountain City, right here at Kinstone.”

“It’s unlike anything you’ll see in the United States.”

Located about six and a half miles southeast of Fountain City, Kinstone is described as a modern megalithic wonder. Founder and director Kristine Beck explains Kingstone is both simpler than that, but also more complex.

Beck explains, “When you come to Kingstone, it’s like coming to a park where you can walk on grassy paths and see beautiful standing stone sculptures. If you get a little deeper into Kinstone and when you visit Kinstone, I would say to a new person that you may find that it’s more than just a park.”

Kinstone is on 30 acres of land that’s been in Beck’s family for four generations. She first bought the parcel back in 1994, and after owning it for well over a decade, Beck began thinking about what to do with it, eventually coming around to the idea of a stone circle.

Beck says, “I like to visit them, they have a special mystery about them that intrigues me, but I can never stay with them long enough to really understand what it is, how it works and I thought, well if I built my own I could just kind of be there in all seasons, all types of weather, and I could get to know it.”

21 semi-loads of stone delivered to Kinstone in October 2011 created the main stone circle that’s the centerpiece of the site, but Beck wasn’t about to stop there.

More stones were placed on the land in 2012, 2014, and most recently in 2018. Additional structures like a cordwood chapel, a labyrinth, a dolmen, and much more were also added throughout the years.

With all of the unique things Kinstone has to offer, Beck says it’s made quite an impression on visitors. “The biggest thing people tell me is first, it’s bigger and more magnificent than they expected, and then many times, often, people are very emotional, they just have found that there’s something more, there’s something deeper here, that they didn’t expect.”

That positive word of mouth throughout the years has led more and more people to make the trip to buffalo county to experience Kinstone for themselves. Beck adds, “You know, maybe 1,000 people in a year in 2018-2019, and now we probably see 5-6,000 people a year at this time, and we expect that number to grow.”

And as the number of visitors continues to rise. Beck says it’s fulfilling to see how Kinstone is making an impact on those who come to see it. “I built this place from a place of, I wanted a place to be rejuvenated, to come back to life so to speak. And I’m finding that I’m not the only one that needed this, that wanted this, that finds solace in this, so, yes, it was for me, but it was not just for me, it was for people like me who were looking for something, and having that validated, you can’t beat this feeling.”

Although it’s been five years since any new stones were added to Kinstone’s impressive collection, Beck says she’s not done building out the modern megalithic wonder that’s one of the true hidden gems of buffalo county.