Supplication in Valley Forge

The world's parks are full of statues of swashbuckling generals on horses. But a new statue of George Washington sculpted by two Utah artists captures a different mood — not swagger but a quiet moment of supplication.

The bronze statue will be officially unveiled and dedicated today at the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. Washington and his horse left Utah at 2 a.m. June 24 on a flatbed truck, after frenzied last-minute sandblasting and waxing.

The statue had a June 27 deadline at Valley Forge, where 2,000 students attending the National Conference of Student Councils, plus 400 teachers, were on hand for a pre-unveiling unveiling. But epic rainstorms pelting the East Coast forced the cancellation of that event.

Salt Lake sculptor Stan Watts designed the statue with a purpose but no destination. "It was sort of 'If I build it they will come,'" says Salt Lake attorney Richard Linford, who helped connect Watts with the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. Although the raw materials were donated, "he spent a lot of his own money to get it where it is," Linford says. Utah sculptor and painter Kim Corpany sculpted the horse.

Watts envisioned a subdued Washington, discouraged that his shoeless, hungry troops in the early days of the Revolution might either desert or not re-enlist. "I don't see him going off and saying 'Hmm, what can I do?'" Watts says. "I picture him on his horse, asking for help. He's looking up for guidance."

Although the question of the Founding Fathers' religious beliefs has been debated for decades — Washington was a Deist, which meant he believed in a creator God but not necessarily in one that answered prayers — Watts believes that Washington would have turned his face upward, summoning "the strength of heaven through meditation and prayer."

"America was free because George Washington stood on a firm foundation," he says.

"I believe, in our country, our freedoms are under attack and God is under attack," Watts explained last month at his Atlas Bronze Casting foundry in Kearns. By then he had gone 48 hours with only two hours of sleep as he and his colleagues hurried to finish Washington as well as a statue of Utah Shakespeare Festival founder Fred Adams, plus "celestial doors" for the Sacramento LDS temple, all due at the same time.

The bronze Washington on his steed hung from a hoist as horse sculptor Corpany did some final sanding. Across the room, the clay version had been positioned directly under a skylight, so that a shaft of light would shine on Washington's upturned face.