Giant statue comes tumbling down

LACONIA — At 6 a.m. Monday in Opechee Park, a city Public Works backhoe nudged a 12-ton red oak sculpture of an American Indian and it came crashing down, breaking into a thousand pieces.

The 36-foot statue, dedicated on Sept. 23, 1984, depicted the head of a Native American man and was called Keewakwa Abenaki Keenabeh, or "The Defiant One.” It had rotted and had to be removed before it fell over on its own.

Public Works Director Wes Anderson said the city decided to keep the removal low profile.

“It could be dead simple, or it could have gone horribly wrong,” he said.

The first step was to chainsaw the wooden telephone pole supporting it from the rear.

“Our guy didn’t have to run fast after he cut it,” Anderson said. “The statue stayed where it was and gradually came down with a little bit of pressure.”

Small pieces of wood and dust were everywhere.

“There was nothing you could recognize,” he said.

The pieces were loaded up and taken to a city burn pile.

“If it hasn’t been set on fire yet, but it will be shortly,” he said. “It will probably be hard to burn. We’ll have to get the fire good and hot.”

City Parks and Recreation Department Director Amy Lovisek said she was hoping to recover a piece big enough to be turned into ceremonial baseball bats for the Winnipesaukee Muskrats of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, but this was not possible.

As a young girl, Lovisek was present when artist Peter Toth did some of the carving and when the statue was dedicated.

Laconia resident​ W. Stephen Loughlin wrote a short obituary.

‘“The Defiant One’ passed into the happy hunting ground on July 1, 2019. The 34-year-old giant Indian statue was laid to rest after a long degenerating disease adversely affected his inner body.”

Loughlin also provided a link to a YouTube video — https://tinyurl.com/y4bymzzf — showing the dedication ceremony. A young-looking Mayor Armand Bolduc spoke. The Shaw brothers gave a soulful rendition of the folk song, “New Hampshire Naturally.”

In April, a laser scan was performed on the statue to capture its exact dimensions and shape, down to the tiniest details. A 3D printer will use that digital information to produce a new statue in pieces that can be assembled in the park and secured to the existing pedestal.

Muskrats team President Michael Smith has pledged to replace the statue. The work should cost about $15,000. A total of $2,220 has been raised online at www.gofundme.com/native-american-statue-laconia-nh.

The new sculpture will be made out of a fiber filament that will hold up better than wood.

Peter Toth, a Hungarian-born artist, created wooden sculptures in every state to honor Native American people. Most of the works have fallen into disrepair.