A Visit to Petrified Wood Park

In 1959, I think over Memorial Day weekend...the real one, our family of six took a vacation driving from Java SD to Billings MT. It was the only vacation we took while I lived at home. (I wonder what that means???) I suppose Dad was 'caught up' (as caught up as a farmer can be) with farm work so we loaded into the two-tone brown station wagon and headed west. I don't remember a lot about that trip. I can only guess what it must have been like traveling with three kids and a baby with no air conditioning or DVDs to watch...the whining and arguing! We went to Billings to see my Dad's sister and her family. I do remember one stop we did make...in Lemmon SD to see the Petrified Wood Park. There are a few pictures showing us in front of one of the buildings. Unfortunately, I don't have one. But when I get it, I will post it, just for fun.

Anyway, since we drove through the Petrified Forest National Park in AZ in April, I have been curious about SD's Petrified Wood Park, no national in the title. I was curious as to why the SD park is buildings constructed of petrified wood pieces. Why wasn't the wood left as it was found? Did the park look any different than it did in 1959? Last week on our way home from the Hills, hubby 'graciously' agreed to a side-trip to Lemmon SD to stop at the Petrified Wood Park to revisit the 1959 stop and to get some answers to my questions.

I learned the park has grown since 1959. Back then it was two 'buildings' and a few pieces of wood strategically placed, and maybe a couple sandstone ball towers.  The park of petrified wood now covers an entire city block and continues to grow in displays through the work of volunteers and donations.

One of several arches

The fairy-tale 'castle' displaying some dinosaur & plant fossils

(Some of the logs used to build the castle weigh more than

10,000 pounds and are from 8 to 10 feet in diameter!

Total composition of castle is more than 

300 tons of petrified wood & fossils.)

The Museum 

(a circular building completely constructed of petrified logs)

The gift shop

The wishing well & museum

(The floor of the museum is petrified slabs of grass!)

The arched entrance to a walled courtyard

A pyramid of sandstone balls

(there are about 100 cone-shaped pyramids 

in the park ranging from 8 to 32 feet tall)

A column created from pieces of petrified wood

A very large sandstone ball atop a petrified tree stump

(sandstone balls range in size from 1/2 inch to several feet in diameter)

One of two large petrified trees in the park

This is what I learned about SD's Petrified Wood Park

1.  It is still free.

2.  It started in 1931 when Ole S. Quammen began erecting the Petrified Wood Park and the museum where he planned to exhibit historic articles from the area around Lemon. 

3.  Mr. Quammen was an amateur geologist who wanted to share the unique fossils from prehistoric times found in the long ago fresh water lake of the area.

4.  He had three goals when he established the Petrified Wood Park: to extend the studies of the region (he enlisted the services of government geologists), to broaden his knowledge of his hobby, and to provide work for many jobless men who were victims of the drought and depression at the time.

5.  Farmers in the area were happy to donate the 'petrified' rocks found in their fields and still are today.

6.  Over a thousand people gathered on June 2, 1932 to dedicate the park and view 'the masterpiece of nature'.

7. There seems to be an unlimited supply of petrified wood within 25 miles of the community.

8. Bones of mammoth prehistoric animals have been uncovered as well those of snakes, fish, snails, grass and leaves of trees.

9. Mr. Quammen used his personal funds to build the park and to provide jobs (and pay) the more than thirty men who constructed the park during that time. One crew collected and hauled the logs and another crew erected the unusual structures.

Later I will post some pictures of the 'wood' that caught my eye as I wandered the city block.