The Petersen Rock Garden was bustling Saturday afternoon as the historic Redmond attraction reopened after an extensive renovation. People crossed the bridges, surveyed the monuments with their miniature houses and castles and listened to the peacocks call out to one another.
The flooring and paint in the museum were both new, and rock specimens were carefully shelved and tagged appropriately. The area’s extensive rock monuments are still being renovated, with new caulking, and occasionally new rocks being put in. The Petersen Rock Garden is 91 years old this year.
Several years ago, the rock garden was a completely different place, covered in trash, with junked cars scattered throughout. A team of dedicated volunteers cleaned up the garden, and used grants from Webfoot Home Improvement and others, as well as additional funding, to lay down new flooring and paint. The museum’s roof is a future fix, said executive director Charles Bartlemay.
“I think there were eight abandoned vehicles….We took out 52 tons of trash,” Bartlemay said. He came on as groundskeeper two years ago. “(Volunteers) come and work on Tuesdays and they’re here for about eight hours. They’re pretty much responsible for taking everything out of the museum so that the new floor could go in, and the new paint job, and then putting everything back in.”
A volunteer geologist spent time labeling specimens for the museum. The organization became a nonprofit a little over a year ago.
When the Central Oregon Irrigation District turns on the canals, water will flow into the moats and ponds on the property, said Bartlemay. After that, the goldfish can be put back into the ponds. Organizers are also hoping to get the property its own well this season, he said. Other future plans include new signs, new roofing for the other buildings and a new septic system for the property. He’s looking forward to recruiting additional volunteers and fundraising, but after everyone’s caught their breath from the reopening.
“We’ve been so focused on just getting to getting to this day,” he said. “I’m going to rest for a week.”
The love of the garden inspired the renovation, he said.
“It was a mess and I think it was pretty close to being just kind of lost into the obscurity of history because it was overgrown all the trash and everything,” he said. “The garden is a place where everybody can just come and hang out and find some common ground, their love of nature and rocks and how amazing nature can be. I hope people walk away with a sense of wonder at what nature can create and what humans can create.”
Ed Taft has volunteered with the garden for the past 18 months. A member of Central Oregon Rock Collectors, he’s interested in learning more, and gamely agreed to do anything and everything to get the rock garden up and running again.
He helped clean, pick up trash, move and cut rock specimens, clear tree limbs, build a door for the ice house, help build a chicken coop, mow the grass and more. He looks forward to it because every day it’s something different, he said.
“I came out to see if there was something I could do, and it’s been 18 months since,” he said. “My granddaughter and my grandson come out periodically during the summer with me and other times, and they enjoy playing with the peacocks and the chickens and running around and seeing different stuff. It’s kind of nice to get them involved in something like this, too.”
He’s learning a lot about the rocks from the geologists who are working on them. All the rocks were collected by Rasmus Petersen, who built the rock garden, within 85 miles of it.
“(I hope people leave with) a sense of awe of what Rasmus built because he did it by himself,” said Taft.
The garden also had a silent auction Saturday to support renovation efforts.
Karen Bilyeu remembered coming to the gardens on field trips from Lacomb, in Linn County, and was delighted to be back around 70 years later.
Robin Eby, 65, remembered going to the Petersen Rock Garden for birthday parties from a very young age, and said she believes her second birthday party was held there. Her parents went to the gardens on their honeymoon in the early 1950s, before she was adopted.
Eby, who lives in Redmond, said it’s wonderful that the gardens are restored. The gardens used to have colored lights and two swan boats in the water, she remembered.
“This is as close as how it was in the 1960s and ’70s,” she said. “You can feel it today, it’s a community feeling. It’s a good start to the spring and summer. It’s meant to be like this.”
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