Starke County is planning a more realistic look when it comes to decorating its “bison-tennial” sculpture. Many of the state’s 92 counties are having local artists or students decorate a five-foot-tall fiberglass bison with a design that represents that particular county.
While the design for Starke County’s bison hasn’t been finalized and a painter hasn’t officially been chosen, the county’s Bicentennial Committee has decided the sculpture should have the appearance of a natural buffalo. Loretta Kosloske serves as the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum’s representative on the committee and has been coordinating the county’s bison installation. She says the choice of decoration will hearken back to when the area’s first explorers traveled down the Kankakee River through Starke County and buffalo were a familiar sight.
The fiberglass bison sculpture was recently delivered to Starke County as part of the Bison-tennial Public Art Project, coordinated by the Indiana Association of United Ways. The goal is for each of the state’s 92 counties to have at least one bison on display along the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay route.
As part of that effort, Kosloske says Starke County’s bison will make an appearance at Wythogan Park in Knox when the Bicentennial Torch passes through the county on Friday, October 7. She adds her group is working with the Starke County Historical Society to find a permanent home for the bison, once the bicentennial celebration comes to an end.
The Starke County Community Foundation teamed up with the United Way to purchase the sculpture.
