Power, strength and danger. Retired logger Michael Maras sees all these qualities in the larger-than-life bronze figures recently installed at the new Logging Legacy Memorial Park in downtown Enumclaw. A drover with his goad stick and a pair of oxen joined by a yoke are all bent forward, their backs and their shoulders straining atop a huge slab of sandstone.
Hooves and hobnail boots push forward as one.
Still to be installed is a 20-foot long, 5-foot- diameter bronze log that will connect to the oxen by bronze chain. A Tacoma foundry is putting the log pieces together.
“I think it is a great thing,†Maras said of the memorial taking shape in his hometown.
“For some of us, growing up with those men – dads and stuff – they were our heroes,†said Maras, 61. “They need to be remembered. The military has its memorials.â€
The park will pay tribute to the more than 8,000 dead and 65,000 injured in the logging industry in the state in the last 100 years, according to Tom Poe, president of the Logging Legacy Memorial Park Foundation. It has raised close to $550,000 since 2002.
Maras, who grew up in a logging family and worked in the industry for nearly 26 years until his knees gave out, knows the toll the woods can take on bodies and lives.
He was injured a couple of times. He also remembers a hot July afternoon in 1984 when his best friend died in his arms on a hillside in the woods after being run over by a log skidder tractor.
Poe is a jeweler, not a logger, but he has a deep sense of community and the history of Enumclaw. He also had the vision for a memorial.
Enumclaw isn’t the logging community it once was, especially with the closure of Weyerhaeuser’s White River Mill in 2003. But Poe said there’s still a footprint of logging in the surrounding woods.
He took his idea for a memorial to Enumclaw sculptor Dan Snider. The artist came back with the stylized oxen and drover dragging a log, the same kind of logging that cleared the plateau in the 1860s.
“I started carrying around a small mock-up in bronze,†Poe said.
The nonprofit foundation was formed and the fundraising began.
The city donated parkland in front of the Enumclaw Library. Poe said it took eight or nine meetings with city committees and commissions to get the go-ahead.
“It wasn’t without opposition,†he said. “It’s different, a little larger than life and meant to be striking, enduring and tell the story for a long time.â€
Donations came primarily from private individuals, close to 300 of them, he said. There also were corporate donors, including Weyerhaeuser, Mutual of Enumclaw and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.
Chuck Nelson from the Wilkeson Sandstone Quarry donated the 136,000 pounds of sandstone base for the bronzes as well as for the benches, rocks and pavers in the park.
Nelson’s huge mobile crane lifted the heavy pieces into place.
Poe said that if he had to bid out the project today, it would cost $2 million.
“Both the artist and the foundry felt it would be a signature piece and they were willing to work more for exposure,†he said.
Poe said that for him the work epitomizes “the resolve and toughness these loggers had. This was the spirit of the Northwest. It was tough and rough.â€
Kevin Keating of The Bronze Works in Tacoma is rushing to cast and assemble the bronze log in time for the June 14 dedication. The log is made up of 84 pieces that must be welded together. Each of the oxen had 65 pieces.
The entire sculpture will use 15,000 pounds of bronze, Keating said. The foundry has been working on it for 18 months.
“It’s pretty much the largest overall project we have ever done,†he said.
Keating said those involved were proud to be part of a local project of such magnitude.
“So many of our bronze pieces go outside the area,†he said. “We don’t get to brag about them.â€
The oxen drew immediate attention when they were installed. A plan to cover the sculpture until dedication day was scrapped.
“They look so powerful,†Carol Smith said as she and her husband, Brit, strolled around the memorial last week. Landscapers were hard at work.
“There is such a rich history here,†she said. “I think it’s sad there is no real logging presence anymore.â€
Allan Magstadt of Enumclaw Landscaping also liked what he saw.
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