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 Over several years, a local man named Jeff Dinnel had worked part time for the Malbys. Jeff, a self-taught naturalist, had assembled an incredible collection of rocks, bones, and other natural objects from Medicine Lake Volcano. While he often borrowed machinery from the Malbys to bring his samples down from the mountain, other times he moved the large rocks himself with timbers and levers, as the Egyptians did when constructing the pyramids. He arranged his giant rock collection in the yard of his father, Bud, and dubbed the display "Rockopolis."
Shortly before Ro's visit in 1997, Jeff died unexpectedly while Bud was away on a hunting trip. The tragedy stunned not only
his family, but everyone in the small surrounding community of Timber Mountain. Ro was struck by the sense of loss and sadness
experienced by members of the community when they spoke of Jeff's death. A woman who worked at the Timber Mountain store
remembered him vividly. "Jeff was so enthusiastic about things. He loved the volcano so much, and he would come in here and
show me rocks that he had just collected."
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