World’s Largest Rosary Collection -- Stevenson, Wash.

Destination:  The Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum near Stevenson, Wash., in Skamania County houses the world’s largest rosary collection, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
Masses are not offered at the museum, but Our Lady Star of the Sea mission parish at 725 SW Rock Creek Dr. in Steveson offers Mass on Sunday at 9 a.m.
Why to go: Located in southeastern Washington, the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center houses approximately 4,000 rosaries that can easily take hours to examine closely.
The collection was the life’s work of the late Donald A. Brown of North Bonneville, Wash., who was a founder of the Skamania County Historical Society.
Brown explained that his collection began in 1917 when he was living in The Dalles, Ore., but his interest in the rosary as a devotional prayer began years earlier, while he was confined to the Mercy Hospital in North Bend, Ore., recovering from pneumonia. He saw the rosaries being worn on the habits of the Sisters of Mercy who staffed the hospital. Later, Brown embraced the Catholic faith.
The rosaries in the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center are organized according to size. The smallest ones are made from beads the size of a pin head, while the largest rosary on display is over 16 feet long. This rosary’s “beads” were made from Styrofoam balls by children in Malden, Mass., for a school play.
(Grand) Kid friendly: The rosary collection is not the only exhibit in the interpretive center, so kids will have plenty to interest them.
Info: Address: Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum, 990 SW Rock Creek Dr., PO Box 396, Stevenson, WA 98648

(CNS photo/Mitch Finley)

Phone — 800/991-2338
Website — www.columbiagorge.org

— Mitch Finley, CNS; Sharon Boehlefeld contributed to this story.

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