By Allison Peck
Listen to the full interview on our Kubota Podcast
There are places you drive past for years before finally stopping to see what is inside.
In Ogallala, the Petrified Wood & Art Gallery is one of those places.
For some, it is a familiar landmark. For others, it is a destination worth planning a trip around. And for the people who have spent decades collecting, preserving and sharing what is inside, it is something much more personal: a piece of history that belongs to the community.
The gallery has attracted attention well beyond Ogallala. Its story and collection have been featured through local media coverage, travel and cultural publications, and even film.
A documentary about Howard and Harvey Kenfield and their remarkable collection, A Legacy in Stone, was featured at the Flatwater Film Festival in Nebraska, bringing the story of the two brothers and the gallery to an audience well beyond Keith County.
That kind of attention is remarkable for a collection housed in a small Nebraska community—and it speaks to what makes the gallery so unusual.
“It’s kind of an unspoken treasure,” said board member Kerri Anderson.
The gallery's visitor registry tells part of the story. Guests have come not only from across Nebraska and the United States, but from other countries as well. For some travelers, the gallery isn't simply a stop along Interstate 80—it is a destination.
And it is easy to understand why once you know what is inside.
The gallery is far more than a collection of rocks.
It contains ancient wood, fossils, gemstones, Native American arrowheads and artifacts, along with artwork created from pieces of petrified wood. There are sculptures, pictures, buildings and music boxes, as well as rotating displays from visiting artists and collections on loan from others.
At the center of it all is the story of Howard and Harvey Kenfield.
The twin brothers began collecting Indian artifacts and eventually expanded their hobby into collecting petrified wood, rocks, fossils and gemstones. Their passion eventually became something much larger—a collection they would spend decades building and sharing with others.
Mike Keith, president of the gallery's board, grew up watching that collection evolve.
Keith has a personal connection to the collection. His father and uncle, Howard and Harvey Kenfield, built the collection that became the gallery.
He remembers when the gallery was housed in a basement and later when it moved south of town, where the brothers built a gallery and welcomed bus tours.
The brothers didn't necessarily seek out the spotlight.
Instead, they let their collection speak for itself.
If visitors happened to encounter Howard or Harvey at the gallery, Keith said, the brothers could spend hours talking with them about rocks, art and the things they had collected.
That passion is still part of the gallery today.
Keith said one of the things that continues to impress him is that he can walk through the gallery multiple times and still find something he has never noticed before.
The collection includes hundreds of pieces of artwork created by the brothers. They began making pictures from petrified wood, initially creating birds before expanding into Old West buildings, storefronts and other scenes. Later came music boxes featuring miniature buildings, mills and windmills.
For Anderson, the gallery also provides a way to connect the area's natural and cultural history.
Artifacts can take stories that people have read about in books and put something tangible in front of them.
The collection includes artifacts connected to the region, including Native American items and materials collected from areas around Keith County. Anderson said that connection can help bring local history to life for visitors of all ages.
That may be part of what keeps people coming back—and what has kept journalists and filmmakers interested.
Visitors frequently tell the people working at the gallery that they have never seen anything quite like it.
Anderson and Keith say the gallery's appeal comes from the combination of natural history, art, local history and the personal story behind the collection.
It is also a story that could have ended somewhere else.
The Kenfield brothers ultimately donated their collection to the community, creating a legacy that would remain in Ogallala.
Today, keeping that legacy alive requires more than simply opening the doors.
The gallery does not charge admission. Its operating money comes from donations, the gift shop, use of its event space and fundraising efforts.
Anderson said the annual fundraiser is the organization's primary source of operating funds, helping pay for expenses such as keeping the building open and having a director available to run the gallery. That includes everything visitors may never see—maintaining the building, arranging rotating exhibits, organizing tours, coordinating volunteers and keeping the gift shop operating.
The gallery also has a back room available for private events, gatherings and other functions, giving the space another way to serve the community while providing additional support for the organization.
The board is also looking toward the future.
Anderson said the organization is working to revitalize its membership program. The gallery has always had members, but the goal now is to make the program more formal and robust, with additional benefits for members.
That effort is part of a larger push to increase awareness of the gallery and encourage more people to become connected to it.
The gallery is also investing in the next generation of local artists.
Anderson said the gallery supports high school artists by selecting student artwork, with students who are selected throughout their high school careers having the opportunity to earn scholarship money.
That community connection is exactly what Keith sees as essential to the gallery's future.
He became more involved with the organization after his work schedule changed, allowing him to spend more time at home. For him, serving as board president is about continuing what his father and uncle—the Kenfield brothers—began.
“I want to maintain the legacy that my dad and my uncle started and gave to the community,” Keith said.
Anderson, who joined the board earlier this year, said she was drawn to the same idea.
She grew up knowing the gallery and its importance to the area, and said she and other newer board members want to bring back some of the awareness and appreciation they remember from growing up in the community.
The October fundraiser is one piece of that effort.
“Bringing History to Life” will take place October 24 at the Willow & Oak Event Center, 801 Diamond Springs Trail in Ogallala. Doors open at 5 p.m., with dinner beginning at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $55 and include dinner and admission to the auction. A cash bar will also be available.
The evening will include live and silent auctions, special exhibits and a presentation from Tamara Cooper, director of Ash Hollow State Historical Park, who will discuss the history of Ash Hollow and the connection between that history and the gallery.
Auction items include a Grand Island Casino Resort getaway, a guided Ash Hollow and Blue Water Sites tour for four, tickets to a show at the Lied Center, a Tom Osborne fine-art print, guided fishing opportunities, Nebraska Supernovas volleyball tickets and other donated items, including art and stonework.
But perhaps the most important thing the event offers is an opportunity to see what the fundraiser is actually supporting.
For people who have never stepped inside the gallery, Anderson has a simple invitation: come see it.
Not necessarily because you are a rock collector. Not necessarily because you consider yourself a history buff.
Come because two brothers spent decades collecting pieces of the natural and cultural world around them, turning some of those pieces into art, and ultimately giving the collection to the community.
And now, decades later, the community is being asked to help keep it here.
“It’s not that everybody needs to give thousands of dollars,” Anderson said. “It’s just every dollar counts to keeping it alive.”
Tickets for the October 24 fundraiser are available through the Petrified Wood & Art Gallery, online through Eventbrite and through the QR code shared on the gallery's website and Facebook page. The gallery can also be reached at 308-284-9996.
Admission to the gallery itself remains free, with donations encouraged.
For a place built around things that have survived for millions of years, the mission is surprisingly simple:
Keep the story going.