Stumps to art a possibility

Two tall stumps at Mason City Memorial Park in Coulee Dam may soon be sculpted into animals and bird images.

One of the huge trees was blown over and the other damaged during the area’s rain and wind storm July 20. The debris was cleared away and the stumps, one about 14 feet tall and the other 10 feet, were saved.

Coulee Dam Mayor Quincy Snow, with an artist’s eye, wanted the huge trunks saved for possible sculpting.

Likewise, area resident Reg Morgan wants the stumps saved and something done with them. Morgan, who volunteers at the town’s visitor center in the park, said Tuesday that he visited Snow in his city hall office and encouraged him to save the stumps.

Morgan was there when workers cut up the downed trees and counted the annual rings in the cross cuts.

“I counted 60, give or take one or two,” Morgan said. He’s keeping his eye on the trees. “It would be a shame to drive by there one day and see the stumps gone,” he said.

Snow, a western artist of some renown, immediately grasped the opportunity to turn a disaster into a benefit. He has his eye on a couple of art pieces in the park.

Bridgeport has a series of tree stumps that have been sculpted into bears, deer and birds along its long main street through town.

Snow wants to do the same thing in Coulee Dam.

Snow said Friday that he has been in contact with artists who do that kind of thing, asking for a bid on the project.

“We can use hotel/motel tax money to pay for the sculpting,” Snow stated.