It is little wonder that Montana is known as the Treasure State. The year was 1893 and representatives from Montana had set up a Pavilion at the Worlds Fair in Chicago. The Montana Mining Pavilion featured nuggets of gold, gold dust, ore from which gold protruded, placer and crystallized gold, wire silver, quartz crystals and many other specimens. As fascinating as Montana ores were, they paled in comparison to Montanas silver statue of “Justice”. The “Silver Queen” was created by sculptor R. Parks an Irish immigrant. Actress Ada Rehan (Delia Crehan) was the model for his creation. The statue was the largest and most expensive silver sculpture ever produced in the world. According to notes from author Wayne Bednersh, “The silver statue itself was 5 10 and 1/2 high and composed of 24,000 ounces of sterling (about 22,200 ounces of pure silver). The gold plinth beneath the statute was made of almost 12,000 ounces of gold, over 800 pounds, all from the Spotted Horse mine at Maiden, in the Judith Mountains of central Montana. The gold was lent by Clara McAdow, who ran the mine for her wheelchair-confined husband, Perry. The plinth was returned to the Spotted Horse immediately after the fair. After the Columbian Exposition ended the statue became the property of the Montana Silver Statue Company, of which F.D. Higbee was the general manager. An equivalent number of ounces of silver was then returned to the State of Montana in lieu of the statue. The silver statue then traveled to various county fairs and stores and ended up in Omaha where it was consigned to a smelter and melted in 1903. Source: montanamining.org/documents/the_silver_queen.pdf
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:44:26 +0000
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