Hartman Rock Garden — Attraction in Springfield

This back yard garden wasn't in great shape, but the story that goes along with it is beautiful. This is a small attraction great for taking a break from driving. I witnessed young kids being amazed at all the details. Go, see, and donate to keep this 100+ year inspirational attraction alive. The man who made it made moulds for a living. He became unemployed during the depression. He started making stone sculptures in his back yard. He made one and was hooked and made this little garden. The garden features his religion, civic duty, patriotism, often he and his wife's name, and feel good stories. There is a path that shows you the way... it was hard to read and it didn't picture well to show. There was so much positive messaging. It reminded me how many times we can take even the hardest times and make them beautiful and something to grow from. There are many mistakes in the garden. Backward letters and things that are hard to read. It's imperfect, but inspirational. The garden is just in a small backyard and 100 years later it is still standing, bringing a positive message to the community about love and persistence in hard times. Go, visit, be inspired to make the world a better place regardless of your circumstance.

It's important to know this is just someone's back yard, so there are no bathrooms, but there are gas stations nearby. It's good for a 10-20...

What a funny little place this is. The family who lives in the home was out enjoying their front yard so I felt a little awkward walking past although they very kindly ignored us. Don’t skip the brochures to the right as you walk in the guided tours they offer are an important and essential part of the experience. It looks like they were in process of setting up spring flowers, etc. so I think later this spring it will be an even more interesting place to visit. We were there in late March so everything was kind of blah, but you still got a sense of the amount of work that was put into this and the uniqueness of this stop. It’s definitely...

This 'visionary art environment' wasn't exactly what I expected...and compared to the Guide Book and Map that is given, it looms SMALL in comparison. It's an unemployed man's backyard!! Someone has been clever to market it as much more then that. Yes, the photographs taken are lovely, but 'in person' the actual stones and cement render it much more dull in color. We drove from Columbus to this average neighborhood and I can assume that the actual people living nearby aren't too impressed by the traffic it attracts. Mr. Hartman had a great time passing the days with this hobby, but I cannot say it...