So, I’ve been biking through the wooded hills between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Saint Helens, which has been gorgeous. But, I’ve been doing it at night, so there are no pictures (sorry). You’ll just have to imagine lush, snowy, majestic peaks piercing the cloudy, luminescent sky.
But as I approached the coast (which I still haven’t seen) and began heading south on Interstate 5, I came across Gospodor Monument Park, a strange outcropping of sculptures looming over the highway:
It was so hard getting to it. I had to jump over three barbed-wire fences, run across the highway, and strain to pull my legs through countless brambles. The builder, Dominic Gospodor of Seattle, apparently didn’t plan on people actually being able to approach the statues, just to see them from afar.
They’re strange to behold, shining sculptures on rusted pylons more than 100 feet high. In the center is Jesus, but he looks a bit more like Geronimo. On the left is a sculpture that looks like a lantern, to commemorate the Holocaust. On the right is an American Indian woman, to bring to mind the strife that American Indians have faced in the last 400 years. And, on a smaller podium is Mother Theresa, caring for a small babe. Here are two close-ups, first of Jesus:
Then of Theresa:
This section of highway below Centralia, Washington, is infamous for roadside religion, not just for these statues, but also a billboard that was put up by a farmer which proclaimed God’s wrath on those he hated. (That man died a few years ago, and I couldn’t find that billboard.)
As for Gospodor, he’s just a retired millionaire who wanted to express himself with his money. He’s not a hugely devout Catholic, he says, and only attended Catholic school for one year. But he loves Theresa. Check out this quote from the Seattle Times:
“ ‘I have seen a lot of people who get a lot of recognition because they pick up a sick baby and get a lot of headlines,’ he says – an obvious reference to the late Princess Diana.
Mother Teresa, he says, was the real deal. Her work with babies went on after the camera lights dimmed.
‘She was devoted. She inspired me to the point where I would like to recognize her.’ “
He reportedly wanted to add more statues, to commemorate polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk, African Americans, Susan B. Anthony, William Seward, and 17,000 people killed annually by drunk drivers, but was stopped by the government due to traffic problems. Apparently, too many people were already slowing down to gawk.
They are supposed to be even more impressive at night, when they are illuminated. Too bad I can’t stick around to see. I’ve got other sights to view, like this gorgeous one along the highway to Portland, Oregon:
