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Touch History
February, 2013

SAVE THE DATE
The date: Sunday, May 5, 2013, with Saturday, May 11 as the rain date. Time to be announced.
The event: Night of the Living Statues. Something mysterious will be happening. Strange rumors
will be dispelled or confirmed. Who knows what will be showing up? Or who?
The place: Mississippi River Sculpture Park.
Hope you'll be able to join us.

Sculptor's Corner

Girl Scouts participate in the unveiling of the Victorian Lady.

The Mississippi River Sculpture Park. What is it for?
People have asked me this question and it is hard for me to answer. For me
expression comes through the artwork. Although I know inside myself what it is for, I
find it a little difficult to express in words.
It is an educational illustration for school children and adults:
All over the world the Mississippi River is introduced to countless school children
as one of the most important features of our continent. How better can we learn than
to actually see and touch these bronze people from out of the pages of our history? It
is an experience not to be forgotten to stand by the great warrior Black Hawk or lie down
beside the resting Voyageur. Dr. Beaumont and his son Israel will not be forgotten by
children who touch the frog in his hands. Victoria Victorious adds her poetry to the
statue of the Victorian Lady, and Emma Big Bear will always remind us of times past
merging with times present. As each new figure is introduced into the park people will
return to have their pictures taken with these characters from our past. Families will
remember their heritage as they stroll among the statues. Stories will be written about
the lives of these bronze people and teach others about them.
Visitors may learn about the making of bronze sculpture and gain appreciation for
the expression of fine art. Children and adults may be encouraged to express themselves
through making art of their own.

--Florence Bird


Hidden Treasures
Eagle Spotting!

The bad news is that this striking photo was taken near Spring Green, more than an hour
away from Prairie du Chien.
The good news is that you can see eagles a lot closer to the Mississippi River Sculpture
Park, although it always depends on where the open water is.
Walk south from the Sculpture Park, then east to the Washington St. bridge. According to
a retired game warden, seeing eagles here is a slam dunk whenever there's open water. The eagles
will be posing for your camera in trees on both banks of the slough, or swooping over the water to
fish for shad. A flock of mallards might be swimming in the slough, ignoring the eagles unless one
comes right at them.
If the water isn't open at this bridge, walk or drive south to the Blackhawk Avenue Bridge
and you'll probably find eagles there.
These are such popular sites that the Prairie du Chien Chief of Police has begged everyone
not to park on either of the bridges.
If you drive to the south end of town along the bypass and pull into the parking ramp north
of the sewage treatment plant, marked with a "Boat Launch" sign, you'll probably find eagles here
too if the water is open.
If the slough is frozen and you follow Highway 27 up the hill from Prairie du Chien and a bit
north, there might be a flock of eagles feasting in a field just off the highway.
Or drive north on Highway 35, and once you're north of Lynxville and the slough at Cold
Spring, keep your eyes open for a big, untidy eagles' nest at the tip of a branch that overhangs the
Mississippi in the middle of a group of trees. A Ferryville native reports that two eagles have been
spotted taking turns at the nest, implying that there are eggs there already.
If you'd like to do more than take a chance of seeing eagles from afar, February 23 is Bald
Eagle Appreciation Day in Prairie du Chien. There will be indoor programs featuring live bald
eagles and raptors, and exhibits. Birding experts and spotting scopes will be available outdoors,
and there will be activities especially for children. All programs and activities, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
are free and will be held at multiple locations - Hoffman Hall, Regional Tourism Center, and
AmericInn. New for 2013 will be free birding programs on Friday evening, February 22, at the
Country Inn & Suites and the AmericInn.
The event is co-sponsored by Effigy Mounds National Monument and the Prairie du Chien
Chamber of Commerce/ Tourism Council. Call 800-732-1673 for more information, or go to
http://www.prairieduchien.org/visitors/eagles.htm.

Presidents' Day in the Sculpture Park


Two presidents may eventually be joining other statues in the Mississippi
River Sculpture Park, almost two centuries after the U.S. Army brought Zachary
Taylor and Jefferson Davis to Fort Crawford. The plan to return these
presidents to St. Feriole Island is not the only thing that links the men.
Chief Black Hawk, a statue already in the park, is the link to a third
president, Abraham Lincoln, but a closer link to both of the men whose clay
models are shown here.
The original Fort Crawford was built in the floodplain on the island, a
very bad choice. Zachary Taylor would become the thirteenth president of the
United States in 1848, but in 1829, Colonel Taylor brought his family here while he was supervising
the construction of the second Fort Crawford on the mainland, on the less floodprone spot where
the Fort Crawford Museum is now located.
One of the officers serving under Col. Taylor, his junior by 24 years, was Lieutenant
Jefferson Davis. Though he was serving in the army of the United States at the time, Davis would
be sworn in as the president of the Confederate States of America in 1862.
In 1832, after Black Hawk returned to Illinois from the land across the Mississippi where
his people had been transported, war broke out. Lincoln, a 23-year-old lawyer, became involved
when he was elected to a captain's position in the Illinois Militia; he saw some of the atrocities that
resulted from the war, but never saw fighting.
After much wandering and fighting, Chief Black Hawk's band was defeated at the Battle of
Bad Axe, north of Prairie du Chien along the Mississippi. Then Black Hawk was brought to Fort
Crawford and surrendered to Col. Taylor. Lt. Davis was trusted with the job of escorting Black
Hawk to prison in St. Louis. On the way, Davis tried to keep curiosity seekers away from Black
Hawk. In his autobiography, the chief said that Davis had treated him "with much kindness."
While stationed at Fort Crawford, Davis courted his commander's daughter, Sarah Knox
Taylor. Col. Taylor approved of Davis, but he didn't want another generation to endure the hard
military life his family had already led. In 1834, Davis was reassigned to an Oklahoma fort. But he
resigned his commission and returned to Prairie du Chien. From Prairie, the young couple eloped
to Kentucky and were married in June,1835.
This year, Presidents' Day will be celebrated on February 18. Valentine's Day, as always,
is February 14. But this Presidents' Day story does not have a Valentine's Day ending: three
months after her wedding, Sarah Taylor Davis died as a result of the malaria she had contracted
during a summer visit with her new husband's sister in Louisiana, and the future CSA president
mourned her for almost a decade before remarrying.


$teps to reach the lifesize scupture



Each step must be completed before the next step is started.
Step 1 may be completed and the bronze maquette size sculpture delivered before the other
steps are funded.
Step 2 may be completed by the enlarger and artist before the last two steps are funded.
Steps 3 and 4 must be fully funded before the bronze casting can proceed and the winner of the
raffle for the bronze model is chosen.


Recent Donations Plus
The Mississippi River Sculpture Park has sometimes received donations in honor or in memory
of a family member or special friend, or designated to be added to the fund for the next statue.
Since the last newsletter, three of these donations have been made.
Members of the Prairie Readers Book Club of Spring Green bought a brick in memory of
Winifred Batson, who died last year. She was a mainstay of the book club and co-founder of the
Spring Green Literary Festival.
Wanda DuCharme, a descendant of Mary Anne LaBuche and Mary Louisa Gagnier, made a
donation in honor of her parents, Richard and Janette Du Charme.
Another descendant, Wilbur Wagner, sent a check from Hartford, Connecticut, a donation
that arrived too late to appear as part of the red line on the graph.
The MRSP Board of Directors and Florence Bird would like to thank these donors for their
contributions to the next statue in the Park.


Editor's Corner


Thanks to MRSP Board member Rogeta Halvorson, who has a way with Photoshop, in
every newsletter you'll see a graph with a red line that will tell you how close the lifesize statue of
Aunt Mary Anne LaBuche is to arriving at the Sculpture Park.
In the photograph that accompanies the Presidents' Day article, the two clay models are
the first drafts of two more lifesize statues that we hope to see in the park some day. The next step
for any statue is the casting of a bronze maquette, with the small clay model as the basis. Then the
foundry enlarges the maquette to a life size foam core. Florence Bird adds a clay layer to the foam,
then she uses the clay to add details and personalize the portraits.
In all, 26 statues are planned for the park. Some time ago, the Sculpture Park board
decided that 26 was a number too large to deal with at the same time, so we divided the total
number of statues into phases. With five statues now in the park, Phase One is complete.
The statues for Phase Two were chosen by people who e-mailed in their choices last
summer. The top vote getters included Aunt Mary Ann LaBuche, Fr. Jacques Marquette, Louis
Joliet, the Mound Builder, Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli, and the British Redcoat who served in the War
of 1812. Phase Two has begun with the Prairie du Chien healer and her granddaughter, a work
now definitely in progress. The small clay model is currently sitting at the foundry, waiting for Step
1 on the graph to be complete. So far, only the clay models for the two presidents are finished,
because neither is a part of Phase Two.
What will make the graph's red line rise? You've probably guessed it: donations.
The board is still finalizing details of the raffle for the bronze maquette of Aunt Mary Anne
LaBuche, worth more than $5,000, that was announced in the last newsletter. But if you donate
now, we'll send you one ticket for every $100 of your donation when tickets become available.
The winner will be chosen when the lifesize statue is ready to join the first five statues in the
Sculpture Park.

---Marilyn Leys


To make a donation to the Sculpture Park
write your check to
Mississippi River Sculpture Park
and send it to
Mississippi River Sculpture Park
Box 395
Prairie du Chien, WI 53821
If you're hoping to see our next statue completed,
add "Mary Anne LaBuche" to the memo line
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Mississippi River Sculpture Park | 1702 E. Parrish St. | Prairie du Chien | WI | 53821