Guess what I finally found — the voyageur statue in Ely, Minnesota, plus the owner and the artist. (I’ve been trying to find it for a couple of years.)
The Midwest’s massive monuments to their uniqueness are pure fun. My community has a large largemouth bass, other towns are graced with a humongous prairie chicken, a mammoth ball of twine, Paul Bunyan, Saint Urho — and larger-than-life statues of voyageurs. When I learned that some existed, I began researching: Where have the voyageurs been memorialized? And what aspects of their lives do the statues show?
Minnesota’s 8 statues of canoemen are found along its northern and eastern borders. A few weeks ago we drove past several, which inspired me to recheck my info. Though I wrote about this two years back, now I want to reprise the entire series of gigantic voyageur monuments that dot the Minnesota landscape. I’ll highlight them all, with pictures and handy locator maps. At the end, so you can compare, all of the pix in one place.
Starting tomorrow with Big Vic in Ranier!
