Decisions, decisions. Update to this story.
Via Helena IR:
A year after it was removed from Hill Park in Helena, a more than 100-year-old granite fountain memorializing Confederate soldiers remains wrapped in a tarp in an undisclosed location.
Surrounded by Helena police, about a dozen protesters and several onlookers, city workers cut the fountain from its base, hoisted it onto a trailer and took it away on Aug. 18, 2017, a year ago today.
And while plans are in the works to install a new fountain on the base left behind, the future of the fountain itself remains uncertain.
At one time, Helena’s Public Works Director Randall Camp said, city officials considered burying the fountain to prevent people from vandalizing it.
Retired Montana Historical Society historian Ellen Baumler said the chances of it being displayed in a museum are “pretty slim,” as it’s harder to explain the fountain away from its original location.
“You remove the ability to interpret them for whoever might be interested,” Baumler said. “It’s a great missed opportunity for public interpretation.”
The city removed the fountain in response to a national epidemic of violence sparked by racial animus in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Then-mayor Jim Smith and the Helena City Commission directed city staff to remove the monument during a two-hour public meeting on Aug. 15, 2017. Some of the 40 people who spoke up at the meeting pleaded with officials to leave the monument alone, some questioned the possibility of rededicating the fountain, and some just wanted it gone.
The commissioners agreed that the fountain should be removed.
“I believe that if the fountain remains in the park, there will likely be a confrontation where high emotions coupled with strong beliefs spill over into violence,” Commissioner Dan Ellison said at the time.
“Underneath it all is a history of racism,” Commissioner Ed Noonan said during the meeting, adding a concern that the fountain could be used as a reason for violence. “At the history of this moment, that’s what these monuments have become.”
“I see the seriousness of it,” Noonan added.
Commissioner Rob Farris-Olsen also voiced concerns about safety, but said racism was the primary issue.
“I think we have an obligation to take it down,” he said in 2017. “I wish we would have two years ago.”
The Independent Record quoted many Helena residents who spoke for and against the fountain’s removal, including Paul Pacini, who served on the Helena Citizens’ Council.
“By removing the fountain, we’re erasing history,” Pacini said at the meeting. Pacini also said the monument could spark further conversations from which residents could learn and grow.