Thank you so much for the tour it was awesome. The grotto is so beautiful! I never imagined it to be like that. I loved every part, but my favorite rocks were the stones that looked like roses.
- Kristen A., St. Rose of Lima School, 5/6th grade

The Grotto of the Redemption is one of my favorite places on Earth. I first saw the Grotto as a child in the 1960s. My grandparents, Francis and Ethel Barrett, from Pocahontas, took my sister and I to see it. We loved it! We would spend every summer with our grandparents, and every summer, without fail, our grandparents would take us back to the Grotto. I have wonderful memories of the happy times I have spent there.

I no longer live in Iowa. I now live in Atlanta, Georgia, but every summer, when I am home to visit, I visit the Grotto. Jonie, my sister, has since passed, and over the years, I have found that the place where I feel her presence most is the Grotto of the Redemption. It truly is a beautiful and spiritually, moving place.

The Grotto holds wonderful memories for me, memories of my childhood, my grandparents, and mostly my sister. Thank you for keeping the Grotto a place where I can return and relive those memories.
- Roxy Gadzicki, Peachtree, GA

My grandparents took me to the grotto when I was a little girl and it was such a wonderful experience I have never forgotten it. So glad to know it still exists. I still have a ring that my grandmother bought for me at the gift shop...some 40 years ago.
- Linda Miller, Martinsville, IL

My family (the Errett family from Harlan, IA) visited the Grotto of the Redemption 46 years ago on a family vacation throughout Iowa. My baby sister was only three years old, and somehow, she got separated from us. We couldn’t find her anywhere. Some very kind, site employees found her, and then found us. They had taken good care of her. The poor little thing was crying. Understandable. She was lost, but she was also holding this HUGE, BEAUTIFUL geode (the state rock of Iowa) that had been given to her. I think that was an awesome thing for the site to do. Do you know? She STILL has that geode today, 46 years later! This happy ending is why our family’s baby getting lost is one of my best memories of visiting the Grotto of the Redemption. Our baby was “redeemed” – delivered back to us.
- Candy Errett, Ankeny, IA

The first time I visited the Grotto was back in 1968, the year before my mother and her unborn child were killed just blocks from our home. I will always fondly remember it as the last vacation we had as a family.

Of course, when you’re small everything looks big, but I remember being overwhelmed by its beauty. That’s why when my husband and I married we made it one of our stops on our “road trip” honeymoon. I wanted him to experience the awe-inspiring beauty that I had remembered as a child. Of course it wasn’t as big as I remembered but it was still a beautiful site, and I am so glad we went there.

While there we purchased bricks in honor of both of my parents and vowed to return to view them after they were laid. We returned this year and were just as inspired, maybe even more so, because a part of me will always remember the feeling I felt when I saw it for the first time as an 11 year old girl and getting to experience it all over again with my husband. We hope to bring other family members with us when we visit for the 100th anniversary of the Grotto so that they too may remember what a beautiful place we have here in Iowa.
- Mary Duke, Grinnell, IA

I am writing a general letter to say hello. I am doing my summer work traveling around the country doing the Missionary co-op work. Friends have taken me to restaurants for breakfast dinners, site seeing have visited the Farms in prairies. I went to West Bend to see the "World's biggest grotto made of stones from all over the world except from Uganda! Iowa is just one big Farm of corn, cows, pigs and wonderful people. It is not Iowa but "heaven".
- Rev. Augustine Wafula (Rain), Uganda

Thank you for a wonderful experience that everyone in our party is still talking about. The Grotto is truly a miracle for everyone to enjoy!
- Kathy Vaske, Chisholm MN

I grew up in Emmetsburg, graduating in 1957 from St. Mary’s Catholic School. I was first introduced to the beauty of mosaics by Father Dobberstein’s grotto. I have never forgotten it and it has and is influencing my life to this day.
- Dr. M Karen Ruddy, Emmetsburg, IA

My husband and I were married by Father Dobberstein in 1928. I took instructions from him. We watched the Grotto grow for many years, How Beautiful. I am 96, my husband passed away 31 years ago.
- Marie Heim, Carroll IA

When I was very young, probably 4 or 5 years old, in the early 60’s my grandparents brought a few of us grandkids to this beautiful place. It wasn’t long after that they passed away. For many years I hunted and questioned everyone as to where this could have been, none of our parents had been there and didn’t know we had gone. Finally in the early 90’s while we were living in Yankton SD someone came into our convenience store and was talking about this beautiful place in West Bend that they had been to. After talking to them awhile I told my wife this had to be the place I had been looking for 30+ years. So we went to see and to my delight it was, my search was over.
- Rick Popkes, Canistota SD

In the early 1950’s my parents, Emmett and Lucy Mohrhouser of Lake View, Iowa would pack all of us six siblings in the car and drive to West Bend’s Grotto of Redemption. Father Dobberstein would set out on the lawn under a shade tree on Sundays to greet visitors. My father made it a point that each of us children, Magdalen, Gerald, Sheran, myself, George and Christie Anna Jane would line up and shake Father Dobberstein’s hand—my father felt he was a very blessed man…almost as if meeting the Pope. Years later I made the trip again with my two children from Denver, CO. Now today, I am here again with my 15 year old Granddaughter, Jessica Zies, from Peachtree City, GA. I currently live in Deming, NM ….and I never fail to feel in awe of this most perfect holy place. God Bless it’s continuance until I return with my Great Grandchildren.
- Linda Mohrhouser-Drilling, Deming NM

I have such fond memories as a child and adult of the awesome beauty of creating this Holy Grotto out of rocks. I’m a collector of special rocks and want to see you continue the works of Fr. Dobberstein who I met personally as a child of 10 or so.
- Marge Stanek