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Paul Broste Rock Museum

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1965, Paul Broste. 508 N. Main St., Fort Berthold Reservation of the Three Affiliated Tribes
  • (Photograph by Steve C. Martens)

This museum is built of granite harvested from the area. The museum was the creation of Broste, a local farmer, artist, and collector, who began his rock collection at an early age and much of it during the 1920s and 1930s, when few people were interested in purchasing rocks. He acquired unusual specimens from all over the world, many of which he cut, ground, and polished into spheres and slabs of great beauty. The museum houses the most significant rock and mineral collection in the state, and many of the specimens are so rare that they may be only found at museums like the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Some items, like the fluoride crystals in the collection, cannot be found elsewhere in the world and are deemed priceless. For many years Broste dreamed of housing his collections in a museum, which he characterized as his “Acropolis on a Hill.” The Paul Broste Rock Museum was constructed with volunteer labor and opened to the public in 1965.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay
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Data

Citation

Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay, "Paul Broste Rock Museum", [Parshall, North Dakota], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ND-01-MN1.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of North Dakota

Buildings of North Dakota, Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 155-155.

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