Passersby can see them gracing the sides of rural highways near Elma, rising to the sky against a backdrop of Iowa fields lined with row upon row of crops.
    Some look as if they are on the brink of toppling over; others have already begun to succumb to the effects of a long, cold winter.
    But Steve Zobeck finds most of his rock stacks are still standing strong when he comes through Elma to visit his parents, retired farmers in rural Elma, twice each year.
    Zobeck, who spent his teenage years on his family’s farm in Elma, first had the idea to manipulate field rocks while visiting his parents in the spring of 2000. Having just come back from living in Southern California where he created art with sand, he desired to find something that would compare to that.
    “I needed to continue doing something with sand,” he said.
    Since sand wasn’t readily available in northeast Iowa, Zobeck turned to field rocks.
    “Many farms had all these piles of rocks laying around the ditches,” he said.
    Where most farmers found a nuisance, Zobeck discovered inspiration and opportunity.
    For Zobeck, creating rock stack art provides him with exercise, sunshine and balance of mind. He also enjoys meeting people who stop and chat when they see him along the road. Zobeck said creating rock stack art has also “been a bit of therapy” for him.
    “It’s been an awfully rewarding experience,” Zobeck said.
    Zobeck, a Catholic, said stacking rocks up toward the heavens is also his way of giving thanks to God.
    Throughout the years, he’s come to know a good rock when he sees one. When creating a stack, Zobeck begins by visually analyzing a rock in order to figure out how well it will work. Paying attention to details such as texture, shape and how well a particular rock will balance on another are all important considerations.     After years of practice, the process seems mostly intuitive for Zobeck.
     “You learn a lot of tricks as you go along,” he said. “But the experimenting never ends.”
    Each rock, and each stack, has its own personality, Zobeck said.
    “Every pile has a different nature to it,” he said. “They turn out a little bit differently with every mood I’m in.”
    Part of what adds to the uniqueness and wonder of the rock stacks along highways is the numerous angles they can be spotted from, Zobeck added.
    “There are a million points of view,” he said.
    One of his favorite parts of being a rock stack artist is the people he meets. People of all ages have approached him and commented on his work while he is stacking rocks alongside the road.
    He once had a pickup truck drive straight into the ditch next to him, and tell him they enjoyed his work and just stopped to say hello. Another time, a woman stopped on Highway 63, jumped out of her car, and began running toward him.
    “She told me to never stop doing this, that she loved them,” Zobeck said.
    When passersby see him near a pile of rocks on the side of a highway, Zobeck said he enjoys it when they smile, honk or wave. Better yet is when they come over and chat for a bit.
    Not everyone who has approached him over the years has been a fan of his work. Over the years, he’s gotten acquainted with a few Iowa State Patrol officers, sheriff deputies and border patrol officers  in New Mexico, where he lives for six months each year.
    He has even seen the police helicopters circling overheard after seeing him stacking rocks. Zobeck said the border patrol officers explained to him that smugglers often stack rocks as a signal of where to retrieve drugs. But after he explains what he’s doing to law enforcement, they have left him to his rocks.
    Zobeck divides the year between Ann Arbor, Mich. where he works at a hospital and Columbus, N.M., where he spends  much of his time creating art.
    His rocks can also be seen reaching up to the sky along Hwy. 9 in the southwest  town of Columbus, N.M. and beside the Huron River in Ann Arbor, Mich.
    “These rocks were here long before any of us were,” Zobeck said. “Just out of the luck of the draw, now they’re getting a little attention.”
    His stacks have received recognition from across the country, including several local and regional newspaper articles and an Iowa Public Television program featuring Zobeck and his rock stacks.
    “I always kind of dreamed of becoming a rock star, but I never thought it would turn out like this,” Zobeck said.