The rock garden held special memories for many of the children who lived on these grounds. According to the story, sometime around 1930 a black meteorite fell from the sky at this location, and soon after Superintendent Merrill, an avid gardener, built a rock garden around it. He employed Steve Burzinski of Landscape Nursery on Havana Road in Owatonna to design the garden, complete with a waterfall and trickling stream, and supposedly a great deal of money was invested to achieve "the proper look." After the institution closed, the rock garden was graded up. It was later reconstructed in commemoration of the Owatonna Sesquicentennial and dedicated August 8, 2004.