Solid as a rock (Parshall

Doris Jacobson carries on the work of the Paul Broste Rock Museum

Solid By ELOISE OGDEN Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com as a D oris Jacobson is the “rock” of the Paul Broste Rock Museum. Jacobson has been the curator of the museum in Parshall for the past 15 years. After her husband, Robert “Jake” Jacobson’s death, she took over as curator for the city-owned facility containing the unique collection of rocks and minerals of the late Paul Broste. “I just love it,” said Jacobson of her work there. “I enjoy all the people rock we meet and Karlene does too.” Karlene Wold of Plaza assists at the museum. On a day in early August, Jacobson and Wold were busily doing their work at the museum when a group of visitors arrived. Jacobson and Wold greeted them. One of the people in the group said she was from Cottage Grove, Minn. Jacobson, who also is the tour guide at the museum, said visitors to the museum come from all over.

taining the unique collection of rocks and minerals of the late Paul Broste.

Doris Jacob-

son, right, and Karlene Wold are shown in the Infi nity Room of the Paul Broste Rock Museum in Parshall. This is Jacobson’s 15th year as museum curator. Wold assists there.

Eloise Ogden/MDN

The rock museum was the dream of Paul Broste, a farmer south of Parshall who had an avid interest in collecting rocks and minerals besides being an artist and writing poetry. Broste died in 1975 at the age of 88. He wanted a place to house his vast collection so he designed the facility and with help of volunteer labor, it was built in the mid-1960s on a hill on the north side of Parshall. A grand opening was held July 1-4, 1966, according to museum information. Broste called it his “Acropolis on a Hill.”

“Paul paid as much as he could on the building. He didn’t have quite enough to finish paying for it all so he went to the city and asked them if they would finish paying for it. He said he would leave it when he died to the City of Parshall,” Jacobson said.

After his death the museum sat empty for two years, Jacobson said. “Then they asked Jake when he retired from RTC (to become its curator). He came up here and worked all winter long on things to get it ready. He had some people come in and put names on everything,” Jacobson said. Jake was also a rock collector.

John Hoganson of the North Dakota Geological Survey led the team who spent time at the museum evaluating and inventoring all the rock and mineral specimens including placing names on each. Hoganson said the collection was “the most significant rock and mineral collection in the state of North Dakota.”

“There are many unique specimens here that are so rare that you’d probably only see these kinds of things at museums like the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., or the American Museum of Art,” Hoganson said.

On this day in early August at the museum Jacobson also was tumbling rocks in a tumbler in a back room. She said tumbling cleans the rocks. “I have the tumbler going all the time. I’m always tumbling rocks,” she said. If she has tumbled rocks ready, she gives three apiece to young kids who visit the museum.

She said the rocks she tumbles are ones that Jake had collected. “I never touch anything that belonged to Paul,” she said.

Broste’s rock and mineral collection in the museum includes 680 spheres that he made.

The museum has many other significant items and features as well.

“The Infinity Room is the only one like it in the world,” said Jacobson. “The tree in the middle Paul built on the farm. He spent two years building that and now it’s balanced by the ways the spheres are put on the tree.”

The Infinity Room is a room surrounded by mirrors with the sphere tree in the middle of the room. The idea behind the room is the four walls of reflections provide infinity, according to a June 1966 story published in The Minot Daily News.

Besides the main museum room with display cases of rocks and minerals, there’s also the Fluorescent Room. “That’s where all the rocks turn color with a black light,” Jacobson said.

Antiques belonging to Broste are in a back area in the museum. Paintings that he did are hanging on the walls of the museum.

“The machine that he built is back there that he made all his spheres on,” said Jacobson, indicating a machine in the back part of the museum. “That was made out of the rear end of a Model A truck, a wash machine motor and a grinder. That’s how he finished all the spheres we have in the museum and we have 680 that he made into spheres.”

The museum contains rock and mineral specimens from more than 18 countries.

“He built the cases in here too because he couldn’t find cases that were strong enough to hold the rocks that he would be putting them in,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson had to learn about the rocks and minerals when she took over as curator. “I had copies of Jake’s tour,” she said, explaining what she used to brush up on the information about the various rocks and minerals.

Before the COVID pandemic, Jacobson said many school groups from numerous cities visited the museum. The museum was closed this past year due to the pandemic. “I only had two classes this year. It was second-graders from Parshall and fifth-graders from Powers Lake. We were happy to see them,” she said.

When the museum was closed this past year, Denise Peterson and her daughters, Julia and Jeanne Peterson, of Makoti, cleaned and painted the entire museum, Jacobson said.

Wold began working at the museum in May. She said she knows many of the people who stop to visit the museum and enjoys visiting with them. She said the museum gets visitors from other areas in the state and also other states.

She said many are surprised there is such a museum. “They never would have thought in a small town like Parshall that we would have a rock museum like this,” she said.

Jacobson said recently three women riding motorcycles from Wisconsin to Montana stopped to see the museum. She said they said someone in Grand Forks told them to be sure to stop in Parshall to see the museum.

Wold said visitors always comment on tours of the museum. “When they end the tour, they say, ‘Doris, you do a wonderful job. Keep up the good work,’”

The museum is open May through September from Wednesdays through Saturdays. Visits during October and November are by appointment by calling the museum number at 862-3264. The museum is closed during the winter months.

Photos by Eloise Ogden/MDN

ABOVE: Doris Jacobson shows the machine that Paul Broste assembled to use to make his spheres. It was made using the rear end of a Model A truck and a washing machine motor with the grinding wheel. LEFT: The late Paul Broste called the rock museum in Parshall his “Acropolis on a Hill.”