Feb 2, 2022

Mystery of the Montana Dolmens

It's a breathtaking arrangement of stones to find deep in the woods (a hunter reported this find!) 

At 28 feet tall, Tizer Dolmen is isolated from other stones. It's impossible to see this bizarrity without thinking of slave armies, giants or maybe architecture-loving dinosaurs. 

Of course we refuse to believe that actual giants put this together. We tend to blame science. 

So let's say for a minute you're God. (Don't worry, you'll be returned.) Without those marvelous opposable thumbs, with tools like glaciers, earthquakes, millennia, etc., how would you place that capstone without knocking over the uprights? 

It's too many for me. But as a sculptor I'm filled with awe!


Another, Tower Dolmen has two capstones balanced on each other, all on the peak of a hill.

The "pinned" rock above–a few tons of unbalanced stone–would have to be carefully placed at the same time as the upper one, right? Or do I misunderstand time as well?

So, suppose there were two glaciers, one to deposit and hold steady the uprights and another to perfectly position the lintels in balance.

Given that, the two glaciers would then have to melt away without moving in order to keep the arrangement stable. 

Again, how would God do that without suspending gravity for an afternoon? 


A few yards away is an astonishing dolmen called Evergreen (which, although I can't verify it, is said to be the tallest in the world at 85 feet!) 

The thing that so stuns me about this is that the right upright is made up of three massive stones, two of them log-shaped. 

They're not perfectly round, but it boggles my brain to think how this arrangement was made or that our frequent earthquakes haven't knocked it over like any self-respecting kid with blocks!

OK, I give up. It's gotta be those aesthete dinosaurs!


One of my favorite dolmens features a capstone balanced on only one boulder, though it looks to be jammed up against another vertical one. But it turns out that––are you sitting down?–– it doesn't touch! There's actually a tiny gap of about 1/2 millimeter! So how did that space happen

Again if I were the sculptor, leaving that vanishing gap would be impossibly hard without massive precision tools. I'm filled with wonder! I don't for the life of me see how nature did that. I also have a hard time believing high-tech extraterrestrials did this without the next earthquake toppling them. In fact all the possible stories are far-fetched.

I think the true tale is the one that fills the viewer with the most awe. After all, humans are created for awe and when we find it, we fulfill our purpose!








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Tim Holmes Studio

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Helena, MT, United States
My inspiration has migrated from traditional materials to working with the field of the psyche as if it were a theater. Many of my recent ideas and inspirations have to do with relationships and how we inhabit the earth and our unique slot in the story of evolution. I wish to use art– or whatever it is I do now– to move the evolution of humanity forward into an increasingly responsive, inclusive and sustainable culture. As globalization flattens peoples into capitalist monoculture I hope to use my art to celebrate historical cultural differences and imagine how we can co-create a rich future together.