Committee established to rehab or replace Chief St. Germain statue

During a town board meeting on July 10, supervisors in St. Germain appointed a new committee to oversee restoration or replacement of a local landmark, the statue of Chief St. Germain.

Within the last several months, the town board was alerted to the fact the fiberglass statue was developing visible cracks and its base may be structurally unsound, which could constitute a safety hazard.

The St. Germain Chamber of Commerce received one quote of $27,000 to repair the statue and base, and the town board was given another quote of approximately $40,000 to have a replica built and erected in its place. Shortly after finding out there was no cheap fix, the board voted to have the statue removed and put into storage until a plan could be developed and funds could be raised to either refurbish or replace it.

During last Monday’s meeting however, the board rescinded its earlier vote after hearing from Jack Peil, a non-voting advisory member of the new committee. Peil said he and Brad Waldmann (of Waldmann Construction in St. Germain) inspected the statue.

“Brad feels — and I feel — that at this point, it’s not in imminent danger or falling over,” he said. “Because there is a heavy metal strap that goes underneath both feet, and it’s anchored to cables that go down into the masonry or cement that’s below it. There’s a piece of plywood (in the base) that’s degraded. And there’s some superficial cracks around the fiberglass body.”

Peil said “There’s checking on the surface, but there’s no cracks that go all the way through. And we think that it can be restored at a reasonable cost ... And I wouldn’t suggest moving it once and storing it, then moving it again. I would suggest that it just needs to be moved once for the restoration. Because the more movement, the more possibility of damage.”

Peil said Waldmann “knows exactly how it was constructed, and there’s no way it’s going to tip over the way it is right now.”

The new committee will be chaired by Supervisor Kalisa Mortag, and its other voting members are Larry Chamberlain, Nancy Szott, Ellyn Dahnke, and Jacki Goebel.

The jobs of the committee will be to seek quotes for work to the base and statue, as well as for potential landscaping. Eventually, it will also be tasked with raising funds for the project.

Speaking with The Lakeland Times prior to the July 10 meeting, Town Board Chairman Tom Christensen said the town is willing to back the restoration or replacement efforts, but “We don’t think it’s a reasonable expense for property taxpayers ... Maybe we (the town) will put some room tax money in or (money) from some other fund that we have that’s not generated by property tax dollars.”

During the meeting, Christensen said “Some of this looks like it’s going to fall into place pretty easily here, however, the fundraising part is wide open.” He cautioned the committee not to put the proverbial cart before the horse.

“Hopefully in the next couple of months, this is all over with. I think the community wants to get it done as soon as possible ... (The committee) will be raising money, so we want to be sure the fundraising is controlled and that we know where the money went,” he said.

Christensen elaborated “The question is if it turns out that it is — and I’m making numbers up here — $10,000 to do it, and you’ve raised $15,000, now what do we do with the other $5,000 where people gave us money in order to rehab the Chief? ... My point was that the fundraising shouldn’t be the first thing that happens.”

Earlier in discussions regarding the statue’s future, the board expressed concerns it might be viewed as culturally insensitive and asked for input from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Prior to his appointment to the committee, Chamberlain contacted Teresa Mitchell at the George W. Brown, Jr. Ojibwe Museum and Cultural Center in Lac du Flambeau. He said Mitchell responded the band “would have no objections” to the existing statue being refurbished and maintained “in recognition of the St. Germain family’s historical significance to the area.”

There was no such person as “Chief St. Germain,” but the St. Germain family has deep ties to the region. The town took its official name in 1930 after first being dubbed Farmington and later Lakewood. At the time, Big St. Germain Lake was the area’s biggest attraction. The lake was named after the St. Germain family, which was established in the Northwoods after a 17th-century French soldier named Jean Francios St. Germaine married a local Ojibwe woman. He was recalled by the French army, but opted to desert the military instead of his family. Their descendants include members of the Ojibwe Nation, and many still live nearby.

The current statue is a replacement of the original, which was carved into timbers and wrapped with metal mesh and waterproof concrete by local artist Neal D.G. Long. There are no records of the statue’s original unveiling date, but most of those who have researched it agree it was erected after World War II and prior to the mid-1950s.

When the timber-based construction of the original rotted beyond the point of repair, the current fiberglass statue took its place. Again, there are no accurate records of the switch-out. Supervisor Ted Ritter said he moved to St. Germain in 1986 and the fiberglass replacement was already there. Committee-member Szott has lived in town all of her life and believes it dates back to the early 1970s.

Speaking with The Times, Szott said the Chief’s status as a landmark is not an overstatement. “If you do a quick Google search, it’s on several sites to come and take pictures with him and to go out of your way to see him,” she said. The statue “Has roots, and it means a lot to people from the town, people who have moved to the town, and people who have been vacationing here for years. Families have taken three or four generations of pictures with him.”

“The people on the committee want it done quickly because we don’t want to lose him,” Szott said. “We’re very interested in making sure that he’s still standing there for generations to come.”