Story Monument is a

public artwork Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acces ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

artist William Galloway, located at the intersection of State Road 135 South and Elkinsville Road in Story, Indiana, United States. Story Monument was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

survey in 1993. The monument is a tribute to the economy of Story.

Description

The monument is carved to look like a

tree trunk In botany, the trunk (or bole) is the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, which is an important feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the trunk to the top, depending on the species. The trunk is th ...

with its limbs cut off. The sculpture is carved with images of a wagon wheel, a

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, a

dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shru ...

tree and vine.

Information

The sculpture was built to represent, according to Save Outdoor Sculpture!, "the economic decline of Story in the 1930s, and its subsequent rebirth in the late 1970s." The carving of the wagon wheel represents the Studebaker buggy assembly operation that was located in Story in the 1920s. (Studebaker's main

South Bend South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

factory ceased making horse-drawn vehicles in 1919.) It took a number of years for artist William Galloway to complete. He worked on it while his parents owned the Story Inn.

Condition

This sculpture, which was incomplete at survey in 1993, was described as "well maintained."

References

{{authority control Monuments and memorials in Indiana Outdoor sculptures in Indiana 1993 sculptures 1993 establishments in Indiana Limestone sculptures in Indiana Deer in art