“The Voyageur” Latest Addition to Sculpture Park
By Dan Moris • May 29th, 2009 • Category: Features, Lead StoryA voyageur joins Black Hawk, a Victorian lady, Dr. Beaumont and his son Israel in the Mississippi River Sculpture Park in Prairie du Chien during an unveiling ceremony on Saturday, May 30th.
The Voyageur is the fourth of more than two dozen planned life sized bronze statues placed in the park next to the Villa Louis on St. Feriole Island. Each statue is created and installed at a price of about $90,000 each.
The Mississippi River Sculpture Park highlights the lives of the people that helped shape Prairie du Chien and the Upper Mississippi River Valley. Sculpture artist Florence Bird says, “This is our story and it continues as we live it today. And each sculpture does not stand alone but is connected with each other sculpture to form a group which tells more than the individual stories.”
Voyageurs were men hired especially to paddle the canoes and work on the long river trips that the fur traders, explorers and missionaries undertook. Most of these men were French Canadians, many of them familiar with the riverways and the frontier.
An unveiling ceremony for “The Voyageur” is scheduled for 3pm Saturday, May 30th. The proram features a historical voyageur performance by Michael Douglass of the Villa Louis and genuine French-Canadian voyageur songs performed by Michael Rangel and Collin Stiemke.
Dan Moris is a co-founder of PdCToday.com. He contributes by writing articles, producing feature videos, and hosting a weekly radio podcast.
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Another waste of money in my opinion. I know the statues are paid for by grants/donations, but c’mon people! 90 grand for each statue. You don’t exactly see people flocking to town to come see the famed statues do you? I’ll bet most visitors can’t even find the statue park. And I am never going to visit it.
I’m going to have to agree with you there. A statue park? Seriously? How much more dull can this town get? Maybe we should focus on getting a few more businesses downtown, or even financially support the new ones that are in the great “Blackhawk Avenue’s revitalized district.” We could use a few less empty buildings and offices and a few more retail shops to draw people down there. Not to say that I don’t love going downtown to look at all the great law offices, banks, and buildings with boarded up windows.