Anyone with some info on the Wheat Statue at The High Plains Journal.

[Jeonlyep]

Just like the title said, I need more info about the wheat statue at the High Plains Journal. Any help is welcome.

Thanks

DAryl

[lurker]

Bill Shira was the sculptor (1970's)... son of a (then) local dentist. He also created "The Keeper of the Plains" that's somewhere on the DCCC Campus.

[HeddaLettuce]

I thought that wheat sculpture was installed in the mid-late '80's?.

I thought it was a Stan Herd creation, but don't bank on that one.

Was the sculpture of the woman located between the parking lots - to the north? Seemed like there was a lot of trees growing around it last time I remember seeing it - in the '80s.

[Jeonlyep]

Well I looked today at lunch "Hoss Huley, or maybe Haley" was welded into the base along with 1984. The girl at the desk didn't know anything about it, and since it was lunchtime no one was available to ask. This ring a bell for anyone?

I'm going to place a Geocache there, but didn't think to ask for more info about it when I got permission to place the cache.

[Made in the USA]

Hoss Haley is Ken and Verla Haley's Son. He is a blacksmith, and I believe he lives in Arizona at the present time. Verla is the secretary presently at Culligan on Central. They live on North Ave A.

[HeddaLettuce]

Hoss Haley - that it!

Here is blurb off the 'net:

Despite Cram's proclamations of Haley's significance (and the artist's disconcerting resemblance to George Clooney), Hoss Haley comes across as Midwest modest. He grew up in Dodge City, Kan., roping cattle, racing motorcycles and raising wheat. "Living on a farm, I had access to basic welding equipment and got a lot of direct experience that way," he notes.

Haley was making sculpture – "cowboys, horses, that kind of thing" – by the time he was a teenager. He won his first commission right out of high school, "a 132-foot-tall wheat sculpture" that still graces the offices of the High Plains Journal.

"I probably haven't done that well – financially –since," confesses Haley. "But I realized then that I had to leave Kansas. Otherwise, I'd probably still be making wheat sculptures or cows."

Interior design / Mountain Xpress / Asheville, NC

[TexKan]

That was kinda sad actually - sounds like he felt his talent would go wasted in his own town. Do they use blacksmiths more in Arizona???......... where is the closest blacksmith?............ Oh well - either way - he did a very nice wheat statue anyhow!........