It is only a quarter mile or so from the old highway that connected Bend and Redmond. Now US 97 is a few miles away and the Gardens are isolated and don't seem to get many visitors. Still the family works hard to keep it up and honor the legacy of Rasmus Petersen, who labored from 1935 to 1952 to create a four acre garden filled with amazingly intricate miniature buildings, castles, bridges and other displays made from rocks that he collected in the area.
The brochure that you can pick up in the museum says that Petersen was born in Denmark in 1883 and came to Central Oregon in 1906 to farm. He retired from farming in 1935 and began to build his Gardens. He used petrified wood, agate, jasper, thundereggs, malachite, lava, and obsidian, among other rocks that he collected within 85 miles of his home.
The brochure notes that "evidence of his love and respect for God and his adopted country is seen in the numbers of miniature churches, the flag of the United States, and the magnificent Statue of Liberty, which a sculptor carved from a local boulder."
When questioned about the incredible effort it took over many years to build his Gardens, the brochure notes that Petersen "maintained that handling all those stones and boulders was nowhere near the work he did in farming, year after year, plowing the fields and hauling off tons of rock."
I hope someday the Petersen Rock Gardens is recognized as important folk art, on a par with Watts Towers in Los Angeles, which is now a public park. I would love to see Petersen Rock Gardens become an Oregon state park some day.
There is a funny old "museum" with rock displays, a couple of pictures of Rasmus, and some neglected looking souveniers.
And the woman running the place, presumably a Petersen, had the cutest kitty.
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