Labyrinth lovers unite to undo vandalism at Lands End

Colleen Yerge (caretaker of Lands End Labyrinth) is joined by many in rebuilding the labyrinth at Lands End in San Francisco on September 13, 2015. The labyrinth was destroyed in August. Colleen Yerge (caretaker of Lands End Labyrinth) is joined by many in rebuilding the labyrinth at Lands End in San Francisco on September 13, 2015. The labyrinth was destroyed in August. Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Labyrinth lovers unite to undo vandalism at Lands End 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

Rebuilding the rocky labyrinth at Lands End has become a calling for Colleen Yerge, a San Francisco doula and de facto keeper of a beloved but oft-vandalized piece of public art.

Yerge has reconstructed the piece — really a cluster of rocks, arranged in 11 concentric circles atop a wind-bitten escarpment — at least three times since discovering it in 2008.

On Sunday, she assembled a group of about 50 volunteers to fix it again.

“This is just my art project — it’s my thing,” Yerge, wearing gardening gloves and a hooded sweatshirt, said as she directed crews to pick cantaloupe-size boulders from the beach below and lay them exactly 15 inches apart.

Among the crowd was Eduardo Aguilera, the artist who built the labyrinth in 2004 as a stealth project.

Aguilera said he spent about 16 hours laying out the rocks that first time, usually early in the morning or around twilight to avoid getting caught by National Park Service rangers.

“I wanted to be totally anonymous,” said Aguilera, who lives in San Francisco and details cars for a living.

Someone destroyed his original labyrinth shortly after its completion. He would rebuild it, and the vandalism would occur again. Before Yerge came along, Aguilera had to painstakingly reassemble the rocks several times.

“I’m passing on the torch,” he said. “I’m pretty busy with work, and I don’t have time to keep coming here.”

Sacred site

The labyrinth last disappeared in the middle of the night of Aug. 11, when someone threw the rocks into the ocean.

“Someone must have really hated this place to destroy it,” said Dev Bhat, a Web editor who helped with the rebuilding effort.

He was one of several people who described the labyrinth as a sacred piece of San Francisco.

Laura Kamper, a stay-at-home mom from Sebastopol, said her husband first took her to see the structure on a rainy night in December 2006.

“We came out here with flashlights, and it was pitch black and the wind was storming,” Kamper said. “He said, ‘I want you to see this.’”

Kamper said she has long been enamored of not just the Lands End labyrinth, but of the symbolism of labyrinths in general.

“It creates a meditative space,” Kamper said. “I think it transcends religions.”

Another volunteer, the Rev. Lauren Artress, is known in San Francisco as a “patron saint of labyrinths,” Kamper said.

Artress, who works with the labyrinths at Grace Cathedral, runs a nonprofit organization called Veriditas, which, according to its website, promotes “personal and planetary change and renewal through the labyrinth experience.”

To Artress, a labyrinth is both a physical structure and a state of mind.

“Finding a labyrinth was important during the AIDS crisis,” she said. “We needed something we could do together thoughtfully, prayerfully and meditatively.”

Quickly repaired

The labyrinth at Lands End was back to its original state about two hours after volunteers laid the first rocks Sunday, though Yerge and Aguilera acknowledged there were no guarantees it will stay intact.

If it’s vandalized again, Yerge says she’ll help lay down fresh circles of rocks.

“When I first saw it, I didn’t know what a labyrinth was,” she said. “But something kept drawing me back.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan