Big Stone Mini Golf/Sculpture Park

windmill sculpture

A new favorite Minnesota destination was added to my list this weekend. Yesterday Paul, Meg, Cyrus and I drove out to Mound/Minnetrista to visit Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Park. The park/farm is owned by sculpture artist Bruce Stillman.

Paul and Cyrus checking out the lay of the land on hole 1

There isn't a whole lot of information about this place available on the internet, but a friend had told me about it after her book club went there for a meeting. I think it is safe to say that we were all impressed with Big Stone. The main attraction is the mini-golf, but there are many others delights to be had, as well.

Meg taking the shot

Before we went, I had explained to Paul that I was expecting it to be a hippie/artsy version of mini-golf and that turned out to be pretty true. The course is set on a big piece of land and is surrounded by farms. The holes were well thought out, creatively designed and pretty darn challenging for mini golf. Each hole incorporated sculptures, some had water elements, and all of them were set amongst mildly manicured plants, trees and shrubs.

I got excited as we went to each new hole because they each had something unusual to offer. This hole was inside of a giant overturned boat.

While we were playing mini-golf, we had noticed a guy riding through the course on a horse. (I think he might have been the owner/sculptor.) Just as were starting the 13th and final hole, the horse clomped on up and started drinking from the water feature on the hole. The person who had been riding the horse was nowhere to be found. I think he had left the horse free to drink and graze and say hi to the other animals as he pleased. It took Cyrus longer than the rest of us to notice that there was a giant horse a few feet away. You can see Cyrus' plaid shirt in the left background of this shot.

After we finished golfing, we headed over to feed the goats and pig. They were some intense goats that nearly climbed over the fencing to get to us! The pig was chilled out, but also appreciated the food. It felt a little weird to be feeding the animals white bread buns from the supermarket, but that is what they gave us when we paid our 50 cents to feed the animals.

In addition to feeding the animals, there were other sculptures to see, other horses in pasture, and a fire pit where we roasted marshmallows.

If you are anywhere nearby, I would definitely recommend a trip to Big Stone. The experience was so much fun and quite a deal for $6 per person. If you want to, you can even bring your own food and drink to the park and have a picnic. Here are a few more links with more information:

Star Tribune

Cool Hunting