Small Towns and their Statues
[Guest post by DRJ]
I love small towns where they agonize over how tall to build their statues of important people.
The Waco, Texas, City Council informally approved a giant Texas Ranger statue to be sculpted by David Adickes to be erected at Waco’s Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. However, some council-members were concerned the towering statue would outshine other Adickes’ sculptures of Sam Houston (67′ tall) in Huntsville and Stephen F. Austin (60′ tall) in Angleton:
“A giant concrete statue of a lawman will soon tower in front of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum on Interstate 35 in Waco. The nearly 70-foot-tall lawman from the fabled agency will be in 1880s attire and stand in a vigilant pose, with a sidearm and a rifle.
The Waco City Council gave its informal blessing to the $650,000 project earlier this week, allowing them to move into high gear with fund raising and working with Houston sculptor David Adickes on the design. It is to be completed by next fall. Adickes also designed the 67-foot-tall concrete-and-steel statue of Sam Houston off Interstate 45 in Huntsville.
Waco City Councilman Rick Allen said he supports the project but does not want to create a rivalry with Huntsville. Allen said he does not want to try to steal the thunder of the true colossus of Texas history. “I don’t want to get in a shootout with Huntsville over who has the tallest statue,” he said.”
Adickes said the Texas Ranger statue would be similar to but not taller than the Sam Houston statue.
Whew. That’s a relief.
— DRJ
Personally, I’m a fan of the mule statue in Muleshoe, Texas.
Beldar (369293) — 10/19/2007 @ 9:04 pmExcellent statue!
By the way, Beldar, what do you think will happen with the UT statues?
DRJ (67ced6) — 10/19/2007 @ 9:21 pmActually … on further reflection … although I’m a fan of Mr. Adickes’ pop sculptures, I think it’s not terribly appropriate to have a giant statue of a Texas Ranger. The Rangers certainly earned larger-than-life reputations during Texas history. But the quintessential Texas Rangers story, of course, is the “One Riot, One Ranger” tale — which implies a normal-sized fellow with abnormal courage, ability, and presence.
Beldar (369293) — 10/19/2007 @ 9:28 pmRe the UT statues, I haven’t been following that. I assume someone’s protesting the number of Confederate war hero statues on the Austin campus?
Beldar (369293) — 10/19/2007 @ 9:31 pmRe: UT, I think the protests started back in my/our day but it has escalated and now the administration is studying it. I think some statues’ days are numbered.
As for the Rangers, apparently Waco’s museum already has a regular-sized Ranger statue. My guess is this one is to lure people in off I-35.
DRJ (67ced6) — 10/19/2007 @ 9:45 pmI’m glad the story specified it was the museum in Waco, otherwise I would have been confused. So are the other Texas Ranger Museums going to engage in a statue race, to get the tallest Ranger? You know, the one in
San Antonio?
http://www.homeandabroad.com/c/48/Site/62046_Texas_Ranger_Memorial_Museum_visit.html
or the one in Kerrville?
http://www.formertexasrangers.org/Center.htm
or the one in Johnson City?
http://www.lbjcountry.com/texas_ranger/index.html
Texas is a big place, there’s probably a couple more lurking about in some corner of the state.
I wonder if the number of museum personnel exceeds the actual Ranger force yet? There are only 118 commissioned officers in the Texas Rangers.
Eric (de12df) — 10/20/2007 @ 5:51 amJust dont let the liberals in or they will want a statue to honor all those no good vietnam era draftdodgers
krazy kagu (171210) — 10/20/2007 @ 6:17 amSomewhere in North Dakota there’s a 55-foot jolly green giant. here.
Al (b624ac) — 10/20/2007 @ 3:53 pmHeh, of course, I mean Minnesota. Read, then type 😉
Al (b624ac) — 10/20/2007 @ 3:53 pmThe real issue is, will it be bigger than the statue at South of the Border?
Truth to tell, my mind did a minor brainfart and initially thought you were talking about a statue devoted to the baseball team.
Of course, it’s obvious that Texas should be the home of the BIG statues.
Old joke:
kishnevi (5ebf93) — 10/20/2007 @ 6:29 pmTexas rancher visits Israel, and gets into a conversation with an Israeli farmer.
Texan: My place is so big that I can get in my car and spend the whole day driving from one end to the other!
Israeli: (sympathetic sigh) I used to have a car like that, too.
Good one, K, and I know it wasn’t the point but haven’t we all had a car like that at some point?
DRJ (67ced6) — 10/20/2007 @ 6:39 pmAnd in minnasota they still have statues of PAUL BUNYAN and BABE and in wisconson they have a hugh fiberglass loon(bird)
krazy kagu (a6e311) — 10/22/2007 @ 6:58 am