Distant Innocence: Twin City Bronze

Usually, when I encounter a statue on my bike rides I am able to make a "Minnesota connection". These are the "expected" monuments. There are also, however, the "unexpected", which makes it fun to keep looking.

The Expected

It is not surprising to find a mammoth statue of Leif Eriksson near the state capitol building since Leif discovered Minnesota and is rumored to have lived in Kensington for a time in the 1300's. I choose to ignore the other, later claimant on the opposite side of the capitol, Christopher Columbus.

Leif Eriksson

And it is also not surprising to find Father Hennepin on Hennepin Avenue before the Basilica of St. Mary, the very first basilica established in the United States. Father H's explorations and missionary work were a major part of my 6th grade Minnesota History class. Remember - Hennepin, LaSalle, LeSueur and Pierre "Pigs Eye" Parrant? Vive la France

Father Hennepin

Hubert Horatio Humphrey is stationed before the Minneapolis City Hall. Hubert served as mayor of Minneapolis from 1945 to 1948 after which he was promoted to the US Senate and then to Vice President under Lyndon Johnson and then lost the 1968 presidential race to Richard Nixon. "The Happy Warrior".

HHH

John Pillsbury, the great flour magnate and supreme University of Minnesota regent and benefactor, graces a knoll on the U of M campus. However, he stands not in front of Pillsbury Hall, a block or so east on Pillsbury Drive, but rather across from Burton Hall. Go figure.

John Pillsbury

F. Scott Fitzgerald of 'Great Gatsby' fame and husband of Zelda, was a St. Paulite, can be found in Rice Park. Did you know his name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald? Apparently he was a distant relative of that amateur poet.

And Herb Brooks is puzzlingly stationed by the Ordway Theater. After the 1980 "Miracle on Ice", he's Minnesota's closest thing to a saint.

And of course , Mary Richards, still tossing her tam on Nicollet Mall, although she has been moved inside. Not a big fan of worshipping TV characters.

Mary Tyler Moore aka Mary Richards

Thomas Lowry, best known by this blogger and readers for the founding of his namesake metropolis. He currently stands in Triangle Park, Minneapolis. [Editor note: I am drafting a petition to the Minneapolis Park Board to have him moved to a site next to Sequoia Coffee, Highway 55 & Main St., Lowry, MN.]

Thomas Lowry, Street Car magnate

The Unexpected. The "what the heck" statues?

The surprising "what the heck?" moments from my catalog of statues are the most fun. What's the story behind these?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It's not really that surprising to find a statue of the great poet in Minneapolis, given his Gitchee-Gumee epic, but he sits off in the weeds - dressed in a toga no less. He's hard to find. You must walk down a dirt path below the Minnehaha Park's Pergola Garden - and he's deteriorating badly, along with the rest of us. (Editor note: full disclosure - he's not bronze). I suspect few are aware of his existence.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

HWL in the weeds

It turns out the good Henry, carved by sculptor Andrew Gewant, was the center-piece of the now defunct Longfellow Zoological Gardens, a bustling zoo on southern reaches of Minneapolis. Henry and the Longfellow House are all that remain of that zoo, incorporated into Minnehaha Park. The zoo was privately established in 1907, was immensely popular and easily reached at the end of a street car line. A perfect Sunday afternoon outing. The zoo featured animal shows with lions, elephants, seals, and a monkey house. Minnehaha Creek was diverted for a seal pond. The zoo ran into hard times in the 20's and eventually many of the animals were moved to Como Park and the land deeded to the city in the 30's.

Longfellow Zoological Gardens ~1910. Photo courtesy Library of Congress

What to do with Henry. No funds could be found to move him, so he sits today in his original location which is now out-of-sight back in the weeds. [Editor note: it's actually a prairie restoration]

Gunnar Wennerberg

Gunnar Wennerberg

Gunnar is tucked away near the Stevens' House in Minnehaha Park. Gunnar was a well known (by Swedes) Swedish poet and singer and statesman in the mid 1800's. As far as I can tell, he was never in Minnesota. The statue, sculpted by Carl Johan Eldh, was erected in 1915, funded by the Wennerberg Memorial Society. Svenskarnas Dag irrational exuberance, I believe. Or perhaps a Scandinavian art war to counter the Norwegian "Ole Bull" statue in Loring Park.

Wikipedia has this faint praise for Gunnar's work:

"His poems, to which their musical accompaniment is almost essential, have not ceased, in half a century, to be universally pleasing to Swedish ears; outside Sweden it would be difficult to make their peculiarly local charm intelligible."

General Emiliano Zapata

Zapata stands on Lake St. in Minneapolis. The statue is a gift from the Mexican state of Morelos. Zapata, a native of Morelos, fought in the Mexican Revolution for the rights of peasants that in 1914 led to the overthrow of the Mexican government. Lake Street has seen waves of immigrants over the past 200 years and General Zapata represents the indomitable spirits of all nationalities. The statue was unveiled in 2013.

Zapata

Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale in Nathan Hale Park, Summit Ave, St. Paul

September, 1776, as he was about to be hanged in New York by the British for spying, Nathan Hale said: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country". Well deserving of tribute, but how did he end up on Summit Avenue?

Well - Nathan Hale was a graduate of Yale and the statue was offered to that university. The Yale curator thought the statue made Hale look too old, so the offer was rejected and Nathan came to Minnesota, the first Revolutionary War tribute west of the Mississippi. The statue was erected in 1907.

Johan Fredrik Schiller

Schiller in Como Park, St. Paul

The Schiller statue was created in Berlin and gifted to the City of St. Paul by the U.S. German Society and St. Paul's German citizens in 1907. Perhaps not coincidental that Norwegian, Ole Bull & Swede, Gunnar Wennerberg came to town about the same time.

Indian hunter and dog