|
|
|
 |
Fire Department Boy With The Boot Statue The front page headline in the October 15, 1988 issue of the Stevens Point Journal read, "Vandals damage statue; Integral part of history lost." His head was broken off, a hole was poked in his chest, and he was knocked off his base, hairline fractures radiating from toe to hip. In short, he was in rough shape. The patient in question is "The Boy with the Leaking Boot," a local landmark with a tragic history. The Boy stood upon a specially built flagstone pedestal in front of Fire Station No. 1. All summer long he held his leaking boot aloft, water streaming from a hole in the toe into the pool below. |
| The Boy design may have originated in Italy (or Germany,France,
or Belgium) in the middle to late 1800's-no one seems certain where, or when. Any knowledge of his creator is lost
to history as well. But it is agreed that fifteen of the original castings still stand throughout the world, ten
of those in the United States. (Nine others in the U.S. are no longer displayed due to damage or theft. He and his brothers are essentially the same: He stands about four feet tall, with pants held by a single strap which crosses his chest; the left hand rests in the front pocket of his pants. His hips are thrust forward, his capped head held back as he stares out past his own right boot held high in his right hand. He first appeared in Stevens Point in about 1895, when he was purchased as part of an improvement project for the market square. There, he was integrated with a watering trough used by horses, the fire engines of that time. Perhaps about 1910, an errant horse-drawn wagon struck the trough. The impact sliced the Boy at the knees and broke off the leaky boot. In this irreparable state he was carted off to a local slough, which happened to be next to the old No. 1 fire station. It seems that within a year, the Boy was rescued by a couple of fire fighters who had been displeased by his fate. They hauled him from his murky grave and gave him a fresh coat of paint. Unable(or unwilling) to find a pewtersmith to fully restore him, they stood him up on his knees in a dirt filled concrete sewer pipe in the center of a flower bed outside the station. They gave him an iron snake to hold aloft. The snake was stolen in about 1930, and in 1941 another fire fighter must have felt the Boy looked pretty barren. He gave him a nice new paint job and whimsically set him up as a young angler: A fishing creel and landing net around his neck, fishing rod under his left arm, and a wooden trout dangling from a leader for him to hold in his right hand.( Appropriately, this fire fighters name was Fisher.) Most of Fisher's adornments disappeared in short order, but that wooden trout remained until 1967, when the statue was moved to the newly built No. 1 fire station. The plans for this station did not include a spot for the Boy, so he was relegated to the basement with the intent to display him again someday. Attempts were made to restore him, including lending him to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for refurbishment by students and faculty of the Art Department. These efforts failed, and the Boy was actually lost for about two years. Finally, in 1975, our Boy was readied for display. A local high school student refinished him with fresh paint. Pewtersmiths still rare, another local man formed lower legs of concrete. Fire fighters built a pedestal and pool with materials donated by local businesses. In July of that year he stood once again on his own two feet, holding aloft a leaking vinyl boot. Thus he stood for fourteen years, dismantled each autumn for an annual touch-up by fire fighters. On October 15, 1988 two young men wreaked havoc on the boy by pushing him off of his pedestal. The Boy was decapitated and had a three inch wide hole poked into his breast. If it weren't for our community's concern about an object of history, the Boy might once again been carted off to a nearby slough. A fund was started which raised about $1300, but the initial estimate for complete restoration was a heart-stopping $40,000. Offers came in from local craftspersons, body shops, and jewelers to fix the statue by welding it or using wood, tin, fiberglass, or epoxy. Pewtersmiths, it seemed, were still a rare commodity. Enter John Becker, of Becker Industry, a machine shop in Milladore. This craftsman volunteered his time and that of four of his employees to repair the Boy. Eight months of nights, weekends, and free time between work orders, about 400 hours in all, went into Becker's painstaking restoration. The old paint was carefully removed. A metallurgist helped him determine that sand, pewter, white-based metal, and old welding rods were among the materials originally used in the statue. Using photographs of similar statues, Becker attempted to recreate every stitch and wrinkle that had been obliterated by nearly a century of history. He even went so far as to recast the Boy's lower legs and leaking boot. Once again the Boy was given a fresh coat of paint and on June 30,1989, he was rededicated on the fountain at the No. 1 fire station in front of about one hundred of his grateful fans. He stood again where he belonged until 1998 when another chapter began in the Boy's tragic history. Once again he was vandalized and again he was decapitated. We are unable to write this chapter because we are yet unsure what will happen to the Boy. There is still pending litigation. But the Stevens Point Fire Fighters can assure you one thing, that the Boy will again someday stand in front of the No. 1 fire station for all of the community and visitors to enjoy. |
|