Sioux Lookout Near Maxwell Nebraska
by Sylvia Thornton
Title
Sioux Lookout Near Maxwell Nebraska
Artist
Sylvia Thornton
Medium
Photograph - Photograph Digital
Description
From northplattebulletin.com 08/26/2007
When the statue of the Sioux Lookout Indian was taken down 10 years ago, Hershey sculptor Mary Tanner had plans for it.
Erected in 1931, the statue stood on a remote hill southeast of North Platte, historically known as Sioux Lookout. Repeatedly attacked by vandals, the Indian�s face was destroyed by blasts from a shotgun. An arm was broken away and the entire 12-feet high monument marred by graffiti.
The statue had been repaired once before. In 1968, Kearney sculptor Ray Schultze had climbed the steep hill to replace the face and arm using rods, fiberglass, and concrete veneer. But vandals had defaced it again.
In July, 1997, the Lincoln County commissioners finally removed the Indian from the hill for repairs. They considered having them done at El Rancho Concrete and Lawn Ornaments, a local business.
But Tanner, a skilled sculptor, knew the Indian should be restored as it was created. The monument was not concrete, but an original work of art carved from Bedford limestone by Lincoln stonemason Ervin Goeller.
�I think it was because of the concrete repair, and the fact it needed to be cleaned, that a lot of people thought it was concrete,� Tanner said. �Actually, it is made from the same stone as the courthouse.�
Tanner applied to the commissioners to do the restoration. Working in her spare time, she spent two years carving a new arm and face for the Indian from limestone, and repairing the damage.
There are electric tools for carving, but Tanner used only a hammer and chisel - painstakingly slow, but with less chance of error.
When controversy arose over returning the Indian to Sioux Lookout, Tanner�s restoration played a part.
Now recognized as a work of art, no one wanted to see the Indian vandalized again. In 2001, the Indian was placed on the corner of the Lincoln County Courthouse lawn.
A Hershey native and University of Nebraska graduate, Tanner was employed for several years as the scientific illustrator for the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln.
When she and her husband, the late Lloyd Tanner, a geologist at the West Central Research and Extension Center, moved to North Platte, Tanner continued to sculpt and do free-lance illustration and scientific drawings.
In 1971, she began working for Dr. Larry Martin, the vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Kansas. She is currently creating scientific scale drawings of �Xenosmilus Hodsonae,� a prehistoric tiger fossil found in Florida.
The drawings will be used to illustrate articles in scientific journals.
The precise work is exacting and time-consuming. But for Tanner, patience is part of her skill, including the two years spent restoring the Sioux Lookout Indian.
�I loved every minute of it,� Tanner said with a smile. �I would be doing it still if I could.�
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