'Doughboy' statue back at home on Memorial Drive
Alex Schultz, Executive Director of Sculpture Valley takes a turn boring new holes in the marble plinth while Steve Maxon of Max-Cast foundry provides direction for placing the "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue in place Monday (Photo: Danny Damiani/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
APPLETON - A statue of a soldier swayed in the breeze above Memorial Drive on Monday before being carefully lowered into place on its pedestal.
The "Spirit of the American Doughboy," a statue honoring soldiers from Outagamie County who served in World War I, was removed in July and taken to a foundry in Kalona, Iowa, to be recast.
Installation day arrived on Monday, five days before Veterans Day, which will mark 83 years since the doughboy first stood watch over one of Appleton's busiest streets. The new bronze statue was suspended from a lift until a small group of workers could gently guide it onto the existing pedestal shortly before 12:30 p.m.
The original statue by E.M. Viquesney, first erected on Nov. 11, 1934, was quickly deteriorating, despite multiple prior restoration efforts, said Alex Schultz, president of Sculpture Valley, a nonprofit arts advocacy group that helped the city create a memorial restoration program.
“It was never expected to last that long outdoors,” he said.
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The original will be placed in storage while the History Museum at the Castle finishes a new exhibit on WWI and local veterans.
John Gilbert, a Vietnam-era Army veteran who lives near the statue, watched and recorded the moment on his phone Monday as the doughboy was lifted into place.
Gilbert routinely pulls weeds and trims bushes around the statue, he said, and was among those who noticed problems with the original. He was excited to see the new statue arrive.
“This is going to be fantastic,” he said. “I’ve done my best to try to maintain him.”
Schultz hoped residents would take the time to think about what the statue means and connect it to their own lives.
Scott Mullen, with The Boldt Company, gets the new "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue in place Monday before it is moved to its pedestal along South Memorial Drive in Appleton. (Photo: Danny Damiani/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
“Just having a war memorial that gets lost to history doesn’t do the community any good,” he said. “We have to make that connection to modern times.”
Monday's installation by Max-Cast Inc. — with an assist from The Boldt Company — took a few hours, but was only a precursor to a larger ceremony coming up on Veterans Day. The statue will be rededicated during a gathering at 9 a.m. Saturday, during which Schultz, Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna and State Rep. Amanda Stuck are expected to speak.
The crowd at that event will be invited to head up Memorial Drive, accompanied by Color and Honor Guards, to the Outagamie County Courthouse for a Veterans Day ceremony, which begins at 10:30 a.m.
The recasting of the doughboy statue follows multiple efforts to keep the original in respectable condition. It proved to be a difficult chore.
The statue was nearly destroyed when hit in 1986 by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. It was pieced back together, but by the turn of the century, it was in rapid decline. The Post-Crescent and the American Legion Post 38 rallied the community in 2006 to raise $20,000 for its restoration.
That added two decades of life, but it again was showing signs of rapid deterioration.
In 2016, the city agreed to use funds from its Statue and Monument Restoration fund to proceed with a full recasting of the statue, overseen by the nonprofit Sculpture Valley. The recasting comes with a price tag of about $29,500, plus an additional $5,000 for a planned plaque, Schultz said.
Scott Mullen, with The Boldt Company, helps guide the new "Spirit of the American Doughboy" monument into place during its reinstallation on Monday along South Memorial Drive in Appleton. A dedication ceremony is set for Veterans Day on Saturday. (Photo: Danny Damiani/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
On Saturday, the new and shiny doughboy will get its official welcome home.