January 14, 2008

21-story bronze Indian

His 'American' dream aliveOsage artist Shan Gray hasn't given up on an endeavor to take his sculpting talent to enormous heights.

He recently made it clear his proposed 21-story bronze monument, "The American," is very much alive.

Perhaps his monument is not becoming a reality as quickly as he had hoped, but it is moving forward, despite its share of skeptics.

The estimated $36 million project is a 207-foot-tall monument to be located on about 114 acres seven miles northwest of Tulsa on Holmes Peak in Osage County.

"The American" depicts a warrior with a bald eagle landing on his forearm.

Visitors would be able to ride an elevator to a two-story gallery two-thirds of the way up the monument and then could climb to an observation deck in the statue's forehead.

1 comment:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
According to writerfella's sources in Tulsa, the proposed statue missed both construction dates AND its debut on the Oklahoma Centennial. Plus, the project is beset by pledge funding with many deal-breaker provisos attached and, if it ever gets built at all, now would be located 13 miles or so out of town. But then again, the St. Louis Gateway Arch first was proposed in the post-WWII 1940s and look how long that one took...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'