Growing up, I loathed when my parents would make my sister and I get out of the car to take a photo with some random roadside attraction. As an adult, my tune has changed and now I LOVE taking photos of those random statues and items.
One of my favorite more recent finds is Minnesota’s oldest piece of petrified wood. I got to see this last April when my fiancé and I were talking a walk in Holdingford checking out the covered bridge on the Lake Wobegon Trail. We parked in a nearby lot, and right by my car was this large piece of petrified wood and I gravitated to it like a moth to a flame.
This chunk of petrified wood was found two miles from Freeport on the Reinhard Vos farm, and moved it to town in 1949. In 2016 the Holdingford Area Historical Society and Holdingford Lions moved it to the Wobegon Trail head for visitors to see.
It is believed to be the largest specimen of petrified wood ever found in the state, and as you can see it is quite large. I’m 5’8 and 170 lbs and this thing is beefy compared to me. It’s a large rock/tree.
Childhood me is mortified by this photo, but adult me thinks this is just the coolest thing. Thanks for having this on display, Holdingford!
The Small Town Tourist 
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