Restoration of Black Hawk statue rekindled with passed State budget

For more than a century, the Black Hawk
statue has stood watch

By Doug Schroder
EDITOR

COURTESY PHOTOS Tempo
A worker prepares the cover on the Black Hawk statue for removal on Friday, June 1. Restoration that had been put on hold for several years has begun again.

For more than a century,  the Black Hawk statue has stood watch over the Rock River and the City of Oregon. However, for the past several years a giant tarp has covered it as efforts to restore the aging statue were put on hold.

But on Friday, June 2, Chief Black Hawk is back and the town is rallying to raise the money necessary to fix the statue, in the hopes that the tarp doesn’t have to come back indefinitely. There was a celebration at the base of the Black Hawk statue on as the tarp was lifted.

John Lindhorst is part of the Oregon Together Black Hawk Team. He believes the statue’s unwrapping will inspire hope in the community.

“Everybody said it looked like Darth Vader,” Lindhorst said. “It looked really ominous.”

Black Hawk overlooks the Rock River once again.

Read the full story in the June 7th Tempo…