FREEDOM ROCK

Located just south of Interstate 80 at the Greenfield exit is a large granite boulder that serves as Ray “Bubba” Sorensen’s canvas for patriotic images. In May, every year since 1999, he has painted murals dedicated to war veterans. The unveiling of the annual artwork has become a Memorial Day tradition that draws thousands of people to the rock.

The huge granite boulder came out of the nearby Schillberg Rock Quarry. It weighs about 56 tons and is 12 ft high. For years it was known as "graffiti rock" and was decorated for high school rivalries, love interests and general graffiti. Only once since the tributes began has the rock been vandalized. Sorenson related the incident to an American Forces Press Service report. The vandalism appeared on his tribute painting for the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 2001. “But the perpetrator got a punch in the face from a Viet Nam Veteran for his trouble,’ and the rock has remained undisturbed since.

Iowa Pride Note: The soldier pictured on the rock is Iowa’s own Salvatore Giunta. SSGT Giunta ,Hiawatha IA, earned the Nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor, for saving the lives of members of his squad on October 25, 2007 during the War in Afghanistan. He received the medal during a ceremony at the White House on November 16, 2010.
After seeing the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” at the age of 19, Sorenson, a student at Iowa State University in Ames, was motivated to paint the rock. "It was right around Memorial Day, and I was driving by that rock and wondered what it would be like if I actually took the time to go out there and paint it. And so I painted it with the flag-raising at Iwo Jima."

Each year he paints over the previous display with white paint and starts with a blank “canvas.” The designs are drawn freehand on the rock. It takes 1-3 weeks, depending on weather and detail, for him to complete the work. He currently resides in Greenfield with his wife Maria. He is a full-time graphic artist/mural painter/photographer who owns and operates Sorensen Studios with his wife, a photographer. He is not commissioned to paint the rock. The expense comes from his own pocket along with the donations and proceeds from merchandise sold at The Freedom Rock Store on-line.

In 2006, some veterans were traveling to Washington, D.C., to spread ashes of fellow Vietnam vets at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. Along the way, they passed the rock and asked Sorensen if they could sprinkle some ashes at the base of the rock. He told them that the ashes would just blow away in the wind and suggested that the ashes be sprinkled into the paint and he would paint them directly onto the rock so they would be there forever.

The next year, Sorensen decided to leave the helicopters he painted with the paint containing the ashes. Since then more ashes arrived and the process has become a tradition. That section on the north side of the rock is not painted over. He stated, “I’ve changed the two helicopters into one big one, because I added more ashes. Now we are up to 20 different Vietnam veterans’ ashes are painted into the side of the rock.”