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The 23-foot tall, 8.5 ton Golden Pioneer which adorns the capitol
dome is a symbol of Oregon’s pioneering spirit.
In 1938, a New York architect by the name of Francis Keally
was commissioned to design Oregon’s third state capitol after the second one was lost
to a fire.
Keally commissioned a New Jersey artist Ulrich Ellerhusen to sculpt and cast a monument for
the new capitol building.
At his workshop in New Jersey, Ellerhusen sculpted 5 models out of plaster before settling on
the design we see today.
Due to the nature and size of this project, Ellerhusen had special doors put in this workshop.
His friend Aileen Eveleth Hament described it this way:
It was a very large piece of sculpture.
And he had to have a door built in his studio
so he could roll it outside and see it in the daylight.
Because he knew that pioneer would stand on your capitol in the sunshine,
and he wanted to make sure it was a beautiful piece.
Ulrich Ellerhusen, a German-born sculptor who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago
is also known for accomplishments that include
Ornamental designs that adorn the outside of the Louisiana State Capitol,
weeping figures on the colonnade at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts,
Additions to the Tympanum over the entrance of the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
When finished, the final Golden Pioneer was sculpted of bronze.
After work was completed in 1938
the Golden Pioneer was loaded on a steamship and travelled via the Panama Canal to Oregon.
Upon arriving in Oregon, the Golden Pioneer was loaded on a flatbed truck and transported
to the new state capitol.
There were a whole bunch of us. And
my older cousin was much more adventuresome
and
he was even uh... when they weren’t looking and it was off the truck but on the ground.
uh... he was even climbing up into it.
Times were more relaxed back then.
People weren’t so worried about lawsuits.
Kids could get into a lot more trouble.
In an era before helicopters and hydraulic cranes, workers spent 3 days using a makeshift wooden crane,
pullies and muscle to hoist the Golden Pioneer 160 feet to his perch on
the capitol dome.
Workers then constructed a plastic cocoon around the statue so the gold leaf covering could be applied.
When gold leaf is added this is called gilding,
and was used to cover the bronze which keeps it from tarnishing.
This allows for easier cleaning in the future.
The cocoon prevented the fine leaf from being damaged during its application.
Every 20 to 25 years,
the Golden Pioneer has been re-gilded to repair damage brought on by years of oxidation and
weather.
With the cost of re-gilding escalating over the years, funds have relied mostly on private
donations and community fundraising.
In 1984, Oregon school children raised more than thirty seven thousand dollars
in coins,
mostly dimes, which covered the cost of re-gilding the statue.
Once again workers erected scaffolding and a cocoon around the statue,
this time with the help of modern equipment.
The Oregon Pioneer statue actually broke free and rotated up on its pedestal
and had a complete sheer crack all the way around.
When the pedestal had fractured,
we came back in and
decided we needed to re-attach the brick and the marble. So we epoxy-injected the joints
and put in some large diameter steel rods and put everything back in compression.
During our seismic retrofit, we were able to remove
the large diameter stainless steel bolts that we installed after the Scotts Mills quake
and replaced those with a reinforced concrete wall
and tied the brick together with the marble
and was able to reattached the Pioneer to
the reinforced concrete walls. Something that was omitted from the original
1937 drawings.
In 2000, the State Capitol was in the process of being re-caulked due to leakage
in the exterior marble.
During the process it was determined the Golden Pioneer was very oxidized and corroded. A scaffolding
was put around him to determine the advanced state of damage.
Upon inspection it was decided to re-guild again.
This magnificent monument that graces the top of the Oregon State Capitol building
reflects the courage and pioneering spirit of Oregonians.
He is symbolic of the pioneers
that came to Oregon originally. He faces north but his head is looking west.
That’s what the pioneers were doing when they came
out here, heading west. Coming to Salem you can look up and see the Gold Man
on a sunny day especially, and you know that’s where the Capitol is. You know where you're going