The Pioneer (Los Angeles)
| The Pioneer | |
|---|---|
 The Pioneer (2019) | |
 | |
| Artist | Henry Lion |
| Location | Los Angeles |
| 34°03′41″N 118°22′02″W / 34.0613°N 118.3672°W | |
The Pioneer is a bronze sculpture of a 49er of the California Gold Rush. The statue was created in 1925 by Henry Lion and has long been a landmark of the Carthay Circle, Los Angeles neighborhood in California, United States, except for a brief period in 2008 when it was stolen. It was recovered at a scrap metal yard by the LAPD art-theft division and was reinstalled in January 2009.[1] Created as an homage to the father of the founder of the Carthay Circle district, the statue is sometimes called Dan the Miner after its subject, Daniel O'Connell McCarthy.[2] Originally part of a fountain opposite Carthay Circle Theatre, it was moved to the pocket park at McCarthy Vista and San Vicente Boulevard in 1969.[2] The Pioneer was one of three California-historic-nostalgia monuments in the original layout of Carthay Circle, along with a boulder honoring Jedediah Smith and a sundial made of bricks of Mission San Juan Capistrano.[3]
Lion told Betty Hoag in 1964 for the Archives of American Art oral history project, "[The Pioneer] was a competition, national competition, which I happened to win in 1924. I was just out of Otis; I was 25 years old. It was an anonymous competition and there was a thousand dollar prize in addition to the commission to do it. They gave me the commission and this seven-foot bronze was cast in New York by the Rollin Bronze Works."[4]
See also[edit]
- Statue of Harrison Gray Otis - another Los Angeles bronze, partially stolen in 2024 for scrap value
References[edit]
- ^ "The Pioneer Statue". Los Angeles Explorers Guild. 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ a b "'Dan the Miner'". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Meares, Hadley (2013-05-03). "Pioneers, Politics, and Punches: Dan the Miner, Carthay Circle, and Dirty Dealings in the Golden West". PBS SoCal. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Lion, Henry (1964-05-21). "Oral history interview with Henry Lion, 1964 May 21 [audio file and transcript]". New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project (Interview). Interviewed by Betty Hoag. Washington, D.C.: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2024-04-13.