One of Illinois’ most impressive landmarks could be saved

Bill Knight column for 3-7, 8 or 9, 2019

Lorado Taft must have been patient. After all, working in sculptures created by pouring metal into meticulously crafted molds – such as “Alma Mater” in Urbana, “Fountain of Time” in Chicago, the “Lincoln-Douglas Debate” memorial in Quincy, “The Pioneers” in Elmwood and others – were long, painstaking processes.

But if the downstate Illinois native were still alive, even he might have become frustrated by years of delays in restoring one of his iconic works, dubbed “Black Hawk” by many Illinoisans.

However, the wait may finally be coming to an end: The restoration of the 48-foot, 270-ton statue in rural Oregon, Ill., is on schedule to be completed by August, thanks to the Illinois General Assembly including $350,000 earmarked for Taft’s statue in the long-delayed budget lawmakers finally passed over a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner more than 18 months ago.

“That was a game changer,” Eric Schenck, director of Illinois Conservation Fund (ICF), the nonprofit that works with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, told the Chicago Tribune. “It created an incentive for private money” to be donated, too. Now, almost $600,000 has been raised.

Further, the engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz and Heger in Chicago is working with a new conservator, Quality Restorations, also based in Chicago.

Mounted on a bluff overlooking the Rock River at Lowden State Park, about 100 miles northeast of Peoria, the national-landmark concrete statue – actually titled “The Eternal Indian” – is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1910-11, it’s the first sculpture of its kind and the second-largest concrete monolithic statue in the world (after Rio de Janeiro’s “Christ the Redeemer”). Constructed of concrete, cement and granite, it includes some 20 tons of red granite chips that Taft demanded to add luster.

Historically, it used to attract some 400,000 visitors a year to the park in rural Ogle County.

Thirty-three-year-old State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) is credited for helping the effort by keeping communication going between local advocates and state officials.

The money raised – generated by the Oregon Together civic group and including contributions from an Oregon manufacturer, area banks and local residents – is being supervised by ICF.

“I’m pleasantly surprised and grateful,” said Jan Stilson, an Oregon historian and writer who helped organize a local effort to support the work.

“Everything just lined up,” Stilson told the Chicago Tribune.

Taft “had this idea of building a monument to the Native Americans who had preceded him,” said Dale Hoppe, director of the Lorado Taft Field Campus complex located nearby. Despite its popular name, it looks less like Black Hawk than Taft’s brother-in-law Hamlin Garland, the author and advocate for Native American rights who modeled for the project.

The long-needed restoration started in 2013, but it sputtered with a lack of state assistance and overall funding woes, then stopped altogether in 2016 after a disagreement between the engineer and the original conservator, Andrzej Dajnowski of Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Inc. in Forest Park, Ill.

Today, wrappings of 12-mil plastic tarp covering protective insulation is a reminder of the arduous process and repeated delays.

“People were bewildered when it came to a screeching halt,” Stilson told the Associated Press.

Now, though, confusion, shock and impatience may be soothed this summer.