Northwest Magazines

Worth A Stop - Oregon

The Living Rock Studios

By Kris Hallenburg

Just before the charming town of Brownsville, 3­-1/2 miles off of I–5 exit 228, a strange castle-like stone building stands out from the rural architecture. This unique structure is the Living Rock Studios, a family-run museum of rocks, wood, and history.

Made of 800 tons of rocks, the mosaic walls display local rocks, gemstones, and minerals. If you run your hand across the wall, you could trace quartz, obsidian, agate, jasper, and sandstone. A wall of lava highlights its various forms: rope, pillow, scoria, and the rare bomb formation. Visitors are given flashlights to shine against the rocks to identify translucent quartz, semi-precious stones, or solid agates, an intriguing game for both children and adults.

Farther into the first floor are “The Living Rock Art Pictures,” depicting various Biblical stories. With mosaics resembling cathedral stained glass windows, these 30-inch by 24-inch scenes are illuminated from behind and are composed entirely of thin slices of rock chosen for their color, pattern, and translucency. The impressive craftsmanship creates pictures with flowing robes, burning bushes, or shining stars.

The “Tree of Life” rises 30 feet from the center of the first floor room with stone-encrusted branches that rise to the ceiling. Collections of petrified wood compose the parquet-type tile lining the outside of the tree. The inside staircase walls are made of crystals.

Climbing the tree trunk staircase you approach the second story. The walls are lined with 100 oil paintings of Northwest birds. The ceiling is covered in an immense fiber art rendition of leaf foliage, the culmination of the petrified tree staircase. In the middle of the room stands a large old-fashioned pipe organ.

Display cases house intricate woodcarvings made out of 100 varieties of Oregon wood. The Logging Book illustrates the history of logging in the region and is illustrated with paintings. Other displays show local pioneer history or American Indian artifacts donated to the museum.

Where did this all come from? Howard Taylor, the creator, is described by his daughter as “having a vivid imagination.” He was a surveyor and rock collector for years until health reasons forced him to stop working in the 1960s. He completed the rock studios in 1985 and lived to 1996. He left the rock studios in a trust to his three daughters, who run it today. The museum is the kind of quickly vanishing curiosity that used to frequent our highways, reminiscent of family trips in the 1950s.