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Rockome Gardens
125 N County Rd 425 E
Arcola, IL 61910

The History of Rockome Gardens

Arthur and Elizabeth Martin started off with a dream to have the largest flower garden in Douglas County. With that in mind, they purchased this 208 acre farm, five miles west of Arcola. They decided to devote 7 acres of the farm to flower gardens, rock formations and their summer cottage. Mr. Martin owned Progress Industries. When work was slow due to the war and the depression, instead of letting his workers become unemployed, he sent them out to construct rock formations and fences. Work toward development of the gardens has been going on since 1937. The first gardens to be constructed were the sunken gardens. Construction of the rockwork consisted of first a metal framework, and then a special consistency of concrete is imbedded into the frame and followed by native stone being set into the concrete. 85-90% of the rocks are local rocks from Rockome’s property and neighboring properties. The next gardens to be constructed were the perennial gardens which are just east of the sunken gardens. The Martins went on expanding and beautifying their summer home. After awhile word got around about how beautiful it was out at Rockome or “Martinome”. Many visitors started to drive by and look at the interesting rockwork and the beautiful gardens. The Martins decided to share their home with everyone who came by to see it. Some of the visitors would call this place Martin’s Rock home. He liked that idea so he dropped the “h” and called it Rockome. They did not charge any admission. As Arthur Martin said, “It is merely our donation to your happiness to make us both forget war, strife, jealousy, death and destruction”.

Mr. and Mrs. Martin loved to travel so a possible inspiration for the rock formations is a Catholic Holy Ghost Park in Dickeyville, WI. This park was constructed in the 1920’s so it would make sense that the Martins might have traveled there and got inspired to do their own rock work.

In 1952 the Martins moved on to other interests and gave Rockome to the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities of Elkhart, IN. They used this as a retirement village. They built two cabins which they used for the missionaries. The missionaries soon realized this was not the kind of retirement village they wanted.

They sold Rockome to Elvan and Irene Yoder in 1958. Mr. Yoder’s first instinct was to start farming, because that is what he had been doing his whole life. People still came to Rockome to picnic and sight see and soon Mr. Yoder had to hire someone to clean and keep up the park area. He started charging a small admission to offset the cost. He soon realized the potential of this land and started opening it to the public. The first attractions the Yoders added to the park were buggy rides, tours of the Amish home, and a small gift shop. The first gift shop was located at the south end of the park across from where the school house is now. Two windows that swing up were used as the front of the gift shop. It was no bigger than an 8’x10’ room. Elvan quoted that if he would sell $100 worth of gifts it would wipe out his entire inventory. Then the gift shop moved to a central location in the park. This was a slight upgrade for Irene but she would eventually need something bigger. Irene’s Gift shop was built in 1968 at the North end of the park near the new parking lot. In 1968 they added a lot of new things to Rockome Gardens like, the tree house, lookout tower, antique museum, haunted barn, and ice cream shop. The dairy barn which was original to the property was turned into the Rock Shop. This shop was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Whetstone whom traveled to Arizona in the winter to collect their rocks. In the years to follow Bill Burnett would operate this shop.

There have been many changes to the park over the years. The tree house had to be lowered because the limbs of the tree were growing at different rates. The haunted barn is now the haunted cave. The Old Hickory Railroad outdoor G-gauge train was put in. One of the bigger changes was the switch to new owners in 2006. This group also saw the potential of Rockome and added new attractions such as kayaking on the river and horseback riding. They noticed the capability Rockome had for education and the non-profit Rockome Learning Foundation Inc. was formed.

Contact Information

Rockome Gardens
125 N County Rd 425 E
Arcola, IL 61910

Phone number: (217) 268-4106
Fax us at: (217) 268-4226
Email us at: toddg@rockome.com