Paul Broste Rock Museum
508 Main St, Parshall, ND
Parshall, ND
A handsome fieldstone building on the prairie, raised to hold the lifetime rock and mineral collection of a self-taught North Dakota farmer.
The Paul Broste Rock Museum in the little town of Parshall is a monument to one man's lifelong passion. Paul Broste was a North Dakota farmer, born in the late 1800s, who taught himself geology, art, and philosophy and spent decades gathering, cutting, and polishing rocks and minerals from around the world. His collection grew so remarkable that the community built a handsome museum of local fieldstone to house it.
Inside are minerals, fossils, and gemstones, and above all the polished stone spheres for which Broste became known, spheres he ground and finished by hand to reveal the hidden patterns and colors within the rock. The museum, opened in the 1960s, is at once a natural-history collection and a portrait of a self-taught prairie polymath, one of the most singular small museums in the state.
What Guests Love
- A vast collection of rocks, minerals, and polished spheres gathered over one lifetime
- The museum building itself, handsomely built of local fieldstone
- The story of a self-taught prairie farmer with a scientist's curiosity
- An unexpected, one-of-a-kind stop far off the usual tourist routes
Worth Knowing
- This is a small, community-run museum, so it rewards travelers who appreciate a quirky specialty stop
- The collection spans minerals, fossils, and Broste's famous polished stone spheres
- Parshall is a small town in remote plains country, so plan your route and fuel
- The building and grounds honor one man's vision, so the story is as much the draw as the rocks
Details
Parshall, ND
Learn about Paul Broste Rock Museum
A self-taught prairie polymath
Paul Broste was born in the 1880s and farmed near Parshall, but his interests ranged far beyond the fields. Largely self-taught, he read deeply in geology, chemistry, art, and philosophy, and he brought a scientist's discipline and an artist's eye to his lifelong hobby of collecting and working stone. He corresponded with experts, traveled to gather specimens, and built up a knowledge of minerals that far exceeded his formal schooling.
That combination of curiosity, craft, and persistence is the real heart of the museum. Broste was the kind of self-made naturalist the rural plains occasionally produced, a farmer who turned a passion into a body of work substantial enough that his neighbors thought it worth a permanent home.
The collection
The museum holds a wide-ranging collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils gathered from across North Dakota and around the world, displayed in cases throughout the stone building. There are crystals and ores, agates and petrified wood, and specimens chosen as much for their beauty as for their science.
The signature of the collection is Broste's polished stone spheres, which he ground and finished by hand to bring out the color and grain locked inside rough rock. Turning a plain stone into a gleaming globe was painstaking work, and the results are the pieces visitors remember most, a marriage of geology and artistry that was Broste's particular gift.
The building on the prairie
The museum is housed in a substantial building of local fieldstone, a fitting home for a rock collection and a landmark in its own right in the small town of Parshall. Its solid stone walls and thoughtful design reflect the seriousness with which the community regarded Broste's life work when they raised the museum in the 1960s.
That the building exists at all is a small wonder: a specialized natural-history museum in a tiny prairie town, built to honor a farmer's hobby. It is exactly the kind of unexpected, deeply local place that rewards travelers willing to leave the main highways behind.
The country around Parshall
Parshall sits on the northern plains within the Fort Berthold Reservation, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, the MHA Nation, whose land spreads along the shores of Lake Sakakawea to the south. This is open, rolling country of wheat and grass, big sky and long horizons.
The museum is an indoor stop good in any season, a welcome refuge from both summer heat and winter cold. Paired with a drive down to the vast blue water of Lake Sakakawea and the reservation communities along its shore, it makes an unusual and memorable day in a lightly traveled corner of the state.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Parshall
Parshall
In town
A small prairie town on the northern plains within the Fort Berthold Reservation, home to the rock museum.
Lake Sakakawea
About 15 miles south
One of the largest reservoirs in the country, its blue water reaching into the reservation country of the MHA Nation.
New Town and Four Bears
About 30 miles southwest
The hub community of the Fort Berthold Reservation, with the Four Bears bridge and the cultural center of the MHA Nation.