 The Abbot @-@ Emeritus of the Abbey of New Clairvaux , <unk> <unk> , <unk> , first saw the stones and pictured them reassembled as a monastery on September 15 , 1955 — his first day in California . He arrived that day in San Francisco to serve as a new monk in Vina , California , at the monastery of Our Lady of New Clairvaux . The monastery belonged to <unk> of the order known as Cistercians of the Strict Observance . The monks farmed and worshiped on land once used by Leland Stanford to grow wine grapes . Davis 's superior met him at the airport and drove him through Golden Gate Park where he stopped to show Davis the stones sitting among the weeds . From time to time in subsequent years , Davis inspected the stones only to find them in increasingly poor condition . 
