Ole S. Quammen, born in 1871, was the driving force behind the Petrified Wood Park. After his family immigrated to America in 1872 and homesteaded in Minnesota, Quammen became a Watkins Medical Co. distributor at age 23, a path that eventually brought him to Voltaire, North Dakota, where he homesteaded in 1900. Seven years later he entered the lumber industry, which later took him to Lemmon, South Dakota, when it was still a tent town. His lumber businesses prospered there, and in 1919 he and his business partner Carl Austad began the highly successful Independent Oil venture. Quammen also had a deep interest in the unusual geologic formations of the western Dakotas and built an extensive rock collection. He developed the idea for a park that would display these strange and beautiful fossils in a distinctive way and draw geologists, nature lovers, and curio seekers from around the world. Construction of the Petrified Wood Park began in 1930 during the Great Depression, providing jobs and financial support to more than 30 men who otherwise would have been unemployed. Most of the park was completed and dedicated in the summer of 1932, and 10,000 people from across the state attended the dedication ceremony. Quammen continued working on the park and expanding his vision for it until his sudden and unexpected death in 1934. Although the park's future was questioned at many points, in 1954 Quammen's daughter, Alice Olson, turned the property over to the City of Lemmon, and substantial labor and donations have sustained and improved the park and its features over the years.