Long before Smith Rock became the bastion of American sport climbing; before Mt. Bachelor became a ski destination; before a single mountain bike trail was shaped from the rocky terrain, Petersen Rock Gardens & Museum in Redmond was a major attraction for Central Oregon. Started in 1935 by Rasmus Petersen, the dazzling array of rock structures that is Petersen Rock Gardens changed hands in 2022, purchased by Marci Wayman with the goal of turning the Central Oregon landmark into a nonprofit to be stewarded and shared by the community.
In honor of the Redmond Issue, we chatted with Wayman. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Source Weekly: Give us a brief overview of what Petersen Rock Gardens is.
Marci Wayman: It was actually the main attraction in Central Oregon for decades and it was created by a Danish immigrant, Rasmus Petersen.
He came over to Central Oregon in 1906 and started farming potatoes, and as he did so, under a lot of the earth discovered these potato-sized rocks. And during the winter months he started building. And as he did, he kind of caught the rockhound vibe that a lot of us have here in Central Oregon, and all kinds of interesting rocks and crystals continue to show up on his homestead. And from that these extraordinary monuments were created — castles, fairy houses, monuments, bridges, all these whimsical, otherworldly creations that are just big. You can walk on them, inside them... actually still standing strong for this many decades. Again, 80 years later we've even had universities coming out to try to check out, what's his magic formula of keeping this all together.
This is our one-year anniversary of taking on a stewardship of the place. And the more we're learning is, you know, people want to know what inspired him. This is incredible because it took him 20 years and he did it himself, and through relationships more and more rocks began to appear beyond just his homestead property, and yet what's so interesting is that all the rocks that he created the monuments out of are all within 70 miles of the place.
SW: What inspired you to become a steward of this place?
MW: That's the question that gets me. I'm a grief counselor — even before my husband died — and he died suddenly and tragically, and I had really young kids, but because I lost Tom, for me, it's an honoring of his love and who he is. Tom was the man, that person that taught me unconditional love, just this really extraordinary being. And by saying yes to Petersen Rock Garden, this is how all that love of Tom gets to continue to flow through into that Garden, through all of us. And as a grief counselor, I get to work every day with all kinds of different teens, adults, couples, families, small groups, and really get to see the transformation of what it means, when we all come together and do that inner work. And strangely enough, I kind of put it out to the universe in February of '22 and said, OK, Universe, I really get a lot of what it means for someone to do their work — what does it mean for a community to do its work? Then this came up for sale. It was, oh my gosh, wow, this actually, this could be a place, because of the energy that it holds and so much love throughout all generations, where we can begin to really again, find ourselves through each other and find ourselves in each other.
—Join us on the next Bend Don't Break podcast, out Oct. 19, for a longer conversation with Marci Wayman and the team from Petersen Rock Gardens. Find all our podcasts on the Podcasts tab of bendsource.com.
