Petersen Rock Garden

Legacy URL:

http://www.viamagazine.com/weekenders/rock_garden07.asp

November/December 2007 [1]

Location

Location name:

Peterson Rock Garden and Museum

Street:

7930 SW 77th St.

Additional:

U.S. Highway 97

City:

Redmond

State/Province:

Country:

United States

By:

Rhonda Ostertag [2]

What happens when an imaginative farmer puts his hands to a pile of rocks? Something like the Petersen Rock Garden and Museum. The folksy roadside attraction eight miles south of Redmond, Ore., represents 17 years of labor by Rasmus Petersen, a Danish immigrant who started to build fanciful miniatures of hand-laid volcanic rock, agate, obsidian, and jasper in 1935. He filled four acres of farmland with intricately detailed cottages, churches, bridges, castles, lagoons, and a seven-foot-tall re-creation of the Statue of Liberty. $3. Off U.S. Highway 97, 7930 SW 77th St., (541) 382-5574.

Photography by George Ostertag

This article was first published in November 2007. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.