If you've ever been to Stonehaven Cottages you might have noticed the stones we've chosen and placed throughout. Dozens of people have asked us about the stone and where we found it. Well, it has a history to it. Lori and I, along with many of the locals can remember going to Hardscrabble to go skiing as kids or young adults. The Hardscrabble ski area was on the West side of the Blue Hills. Buses upon buses and cars filled with people came from all over the Twin Cities area as well as the locals. Hardscrabble was a pretty popular place back in the day. After the prime days of Hardscrabble skiing, several other ski hills opened up and made it tough for Hardscrabble to stay afloat. Eventually, it closed and was sold to Steve and Laura Cutsforth. They started a restaurant, but eventually sold Hardscrabble to American Materials out of Eau Claire/Todd's Redi-Mix in Rice Lake. The new owners knew there was valuable stone beneath the surface behind the hill. If you go to the backside of Hardscrabble, you can see the quarry where they mine the Hardscrabble Rose Stone. Rose Stone is very abrasive, it has a sandpaper texture to the outside which is very beneficial in preventing erosion. When it's laid down as road base, the rocks have enough friction that they lock in together and create a bridge, so to speak, over soft spots in the soil. It has worked excellent as a road base here ...