After a journey that took three years, 4,500 miles and $250,000, the statue of Secretary William Henry Seward is just days away from being installed in downtown Juneau.<\/p>\n
The statue commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Cession that made Alaska a U.S. territory, and arrived in Juneau a few weeks ago. Prior to that, the statue traveled from Seward’s longtime home in New York, through Nebraska and up to Juneau.<\/p>\n
Wayne Jensen, the co-chair of the Seward Statue Committee, said that early next week, the statue will be put in place at the Dimond Courthouse Plaza in front of the Alaska State Capitol. The public ceremony for the unveiling will take place at 3 p.m. July 3.<\/p>\n
On Thursday morning, the contractors who are working with the statue took it through a “trial run,” as Jensen called it. They lowered the statue onto its marble base, and after years of working to make this statue a reality, Jensen was more than a little nervous.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to make sure before we put it down in the courthouse plaza that it was gonna fit,” Jensen said. “They were very careful lowering it down. Fortunately, I wasn’t there. I got there just after it was set, otherwise it would have probably been a little nerve-wracking.”<\/p>\n
[Preserving a scar: Seward statue debate exposes differing views on history<\/a>] <\/ins><\/p>\n While speaking at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday, Jensen also said the statue is now fully funded. The project ended up costing $250,000, Jensen said, with about three-quarters of it coming from donations and grants. The other quarter has come in the form of in-kind donations, with people donating their time or services or donating items to auction off to raise money for the project.<\/p>\n Co-Chair of the Seward Statue Committee Mary Becker said the largest donation came from the Alaska Historical Commission<\/a> (part of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources), in the form of two grants totaling about $28,000. Those grants were set aside specifically for projects relating to the sesquicentennial (the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Cession), Jensen said.<\/p>\n