Bronze statues tell story of settlement at St. Croix Island

CALAIS – Under spectacular sunny skies, workers placed six bronze statues Wednesday on the shore across from St. Croix Island, where the 400th anniversary of the first French settlement in North America will be celebrated next year.

The statues, which weigh 700 to 1,500 pounds each, were lifted by crane from the back of a rental truck onto a parking lot at the park along the St. Croix River south of downtown Calais.

Men from New York-based RVW Sculpture Arrangement Ltd. then raised the statues onto the back of a flatbed truck. Slowly the statues were driven across a trail to cement slabs, where they were set and bolted into place.

The statues commemorate French explorers led by Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain who built a small settlement in 1604 that predated English colonies at Jamestown, Va., (1607) and Plymouth, Mass. (1620).

The display also recognizes the role of the Passamaquoddy who were living in the area.

A brutal winter killed nearly half the settlers. The island colony was abandoned the next year.

As the anniversary approaches, the federal government has spent $660,000 to turn an otherwise forgotten historical landmark into a showpiece.

Now a paved parking lot that can accommodate 20 cars and two buses occupies the mainland area. The trail through a wooded area leads to the shore and a view of the island. The statues were placed at intervals along the interpretive trail.

“The first one you encounter as you walk down our new interpretive trail is a Passamaquoddy woman,” said Bruce Jacobson, who serves as site liaison for the National Park Service. “And she is standing on the shore looking at the river, kind of seeing ships come up, wondering what they are.”

Also represented are figures that commemorate trading with the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the gathering of food, the building of the settlement and the eventual departure. The project includes a bronze replica of the settlement itself.

Vanessa Solomon, sculptor and production manager for StudioEIS in Brooklyn, N.Y., was on hand for the placement Wednesday. She has been involved with the project for about a year and said she was impressed with the beauty of the area.

Solomon said her firm began by sculpting individual clay pieces. Later, molds were created and eventually the statues were cast in bronze. “It was a wonderful, creative process for us working with the Park Service and the team,” she said.

Jacobson called the explorers venture capitalists. “They came over to make money,” he said. “That was their charge. That was what they were after. It was not a military expedition. He [de Monts] was here to make money so that is why it was a mercantile expedition.”

For years, little was known of the island and it had few visitors. But all that has changed.

Preparation for this day began nearly 10 years ago, Jacobson said.

“The exhibit designer and I were sitting around one evening after we’d been working on the general management plan for the site,” he said. “And we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if you could walk down the trail and you would encounter people who might have been on the island.'”

They developed a plan, sought federal funding, and the staff at Acadia National Park made that dream a reality, Jacobson said.

The National Park Service is responsible for oversight of the island.

The park officially will open at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18.

Federal and state officials, along with members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Parks Canada, will be at the opening.