The Real Oregon

Rasmus Petersen, a Dane who came to Oregon in 1900 and died here in 1952, loved rocks. To see what he managed to do with them as an artistic medium, you need to travel pretty much to the middle of nowhere — OK, a few miles outside of Redmond, Oregon — and drop in on Petersen Rock Garden, the delightful folly that Rasmus built.

Petersen’s four-acre home is run as something between an informal public park and a very low-key tourist attraction. There’s no one selling admission tickets; drop $3 a head in the box by the gift shop to cover the family’s costs.

Then wander, amid a handful of peacocks, around the incredibly weird estate, decorated with Rasmus’ strange houses, castles, and even a replica (apparently not by Rasmus himself) of the Statue of Liberty.

Almost anywhere else in the world this would be considered valuable folk art and protected; here it’s just part of the community. A must-see for anyone within 100 miles. Or more.

For the first time in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 72-year history, a play was canceled last week because of a bomb threat.

A Friday afternoon production of Tom Stoppard’s “On the Razzle,” one of the hits of the season, was called off while police defused what appeared to be a bomb planted next to the hideous statue of Abe Lincoln (pictured above) that stands in Lithia Park next to the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

The statue is so bad that it’s frequently defaced and recently was without a head; the replacement head appears to belong to a much larger body.

Also evacuated was City Hall and several restaurants. The bomb turned out to be nothing but batteries, wires and a timer.

The festival handed out refunds and replacement tickets.