Susan Caward, granddaughter of Rasmus Petersen, creator of the Petersen Rock Garden in Redmond.

1. Questions surround land use at Petersen Rock Garden
2. Petersen Rock Garden closes
3. Historic peacocks for sale — you buy them, you catch them

Ever since the Petersen Rock Garden was sold last summer, the gate at the driveway on SW 77 Street has remained shut with a sign that says the beloved roadside attraction is temporarily closed.

From the street, the place looks deserted. The iconic stone structures, some missing a rock or two, sit in silence under an overcast sky like a ruin from another time.

At first, the shrieks of the resident peacocks are the only sign of life in a place that was once bustling with visitors who came from all over the world. But hang around a bit and Craig Fox, 66, who is one of the volunteer resident caretakers of the garden, might swing the gate open for an informal visit.

He likes to meet nostalgic visitors.

“If anything, I’m asking them about it. If, when they were here, did they meet the guy (Petersen)? I met someone who met him…some of them are sad about the condition of it,” Fox said. “He (Petersen) kept it immaculate.”

When Fox spots people, usually middle-aged couples, snooping around the perimeter of the property, he can tell they are just there to see the garden, so he goes over to them. Fox enjoys showing people around, he said.

When he’s not accommodating people, Fox also spends his days cleaning up and maintaining the rock sculptures.

“I was just moving around a little rock, one of the littler ones I had to move, and it was only a little bit bigger than a bowling ball and it was heavy,” Fox said laughing.

The garden, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, changed owners last summer.

Deschutes County records show the property was purchased in September for $801,000 by Thomas R.P. Wayman, who bought it from Susan Caward, the granddaughter of the rock garden’s creator. Citing health reasons, Caward had listed the property in early June for $825,000. At the time, she said she didn’t want to sell the property to just anybody and hoped to find a buyer who would maintain her grandfather’s creations.

Fox knows one of the rock garden’s new owners, and is allowed to stay in his RV on the property and volunteer as one of the garden’s caretakers.

“You should be excited that these people bought it,” Fox said of the new owners. “They are really into it and very high minded with what they are trying to do.”

The 40 peacocks that live on the grounds are sustained on a diet of corn, sunflower seeds, and wild bird seed and that Fox feeds them three times a day, he said. They also snack on bugs and nibble on any green sprouts.

As Fox walked the property one of the peacocks, displaying its regal fan of colorful feathers, let out a set of primal screeches, an iconic sound at the longtime attraction.

“It sounds like you’re in the jungle,” Fox said as the peacock continued its wild calling.

The rock garden was built by Danish immigrant Rasmus Petersen in the 1940s and ‘50s and sits on 12 acres that wasn’t zoned until the 1970s. The land is zoned exclusively for farm use, which is the most restrictive zoning in unincorporated Deschutes County, according to county officials.

Andy Ross, 42, of Bend, said he is a business partner of the property’s new owner. Ross said the goal is to restore the garden and solicit community support to work toward keeping Petersen’s legacy intact.

Ross said he and his associates are working on the restoration effort with the hope of opening the garden to the public sometime before summer. In the meantime, there is much work to be done.

“The mission is to restore it to its former glory and for it to be a community gathering space in the same spirit of what it’s been. We are not trying to do anything different,” Ross said. “We heard from enough people in our community and we figured out a way to make it happen so it didn’t get sold to a developer.”

Ross said the owners are in the process of starting a nonprofit organization and that the garden will operate much like it did in the past, with a donation box, and of course, the peacocks that freely roam the grounds.

“The peacocks will be sticking around…That is going to be one of the first things we reach out to the community for help on is feeding the peacocks,” Ross said. “That’s my biggest expense, the peacocks and the cats.”

Kelly Cannon-Miller, the executive director of the Deschutes County Historical Society, said she and her organization look forward to the garden’s reopening to the public.

“The owners face many years of deferred maintenance, so I would anticipate it might take years for them to realize their vision. Rasmus himself never quit tinkering and adding on over the years, and that was part of the joy of the gardens — its evolution,” Cannon-Miller said. “This season will be the start of a new period in the life of the garden and that’s kind of exciting.”

In order to reopen the garden, the new owners will have to work closely with county officials, said Tanya Saltzman, senior planner for Deschutes County Community Development.

“They are going to have to reach out to our current planning division to figure out if they can do that,” Saltzman said. “I would prefer for them to speak with us directly.”

Saltzman said given the garden is on private property, there is not much the county’s planning division can do until the new owners present their proposal and submit an application for what they plan to do with it.

“Until they come before the county with either an application or a request for a pre-app or even just questions, then we can’t really address it,” Saltzman said. “Even though it is designated as a local resource, it is not in our wheelhouse to be the police of it.”

At this time, the county is waiting to hear from the new owners, who will likely have to consult with the county before proceeding, Saltzman said.

“Because it is on EFU (Exclusive Farm Use) land, depending on what they propose, that is subject to regulations that govern that zoning district. But that is putting the cart before the horse because they haven’t even come to us yet and we have no idea what their plans are,” Saltzman said.

Saltzman said in addition to septic issues, there could be a whole menu of potential situations depending on what the new owners plan to do with the property.

She said the county is ready to consult with them when the new owners are ready.

“We recognize that if they want to do anything they will likely have to contact us so we want to be a partner because we recognize this is an important place to a lot of people,” Saltzman said. “We can help guide them on the right path to see what’s possible and what’s not possible.”

In the meantime, Fox will continue his work taking care of the grounds and feeding the peacocks. With his quirky personality, he fits in. He first walked to Central Oregon from New Mexico with a drove of donkeys in tow 12 years ago.

“When people would see me, they knew that something was going on,” Fox said.

He explained that not long before he came to the garden he found a small plastic Statue of Liberty in his pocket. Fox took the figurine as a sign that he was where he was meant to be, given the famous Statue of Liberty rock sculpture in the garden.

“I’m sort of just following my passion,” Fox said. “And I’m just doing what I think I should do.”