The new Forever in the Clouds monument has taken a couple of steps closer towards completion.
Sculptor Darren Jones was in Estevan on Monday and Tuesday to work on the monument, which pays tribute to the 21 people – 20 airmen and one groundscrewman – who died in a plane crash at the former site of the Estevan Airport on Sept. 15, 1946.
The faces of 19 of the 21 victims are now engraved into the monument.
Jones, who also carved the Estevan Soldiers’ Tree that stands next to Estevan’s cenotaph, used a chainsaw to carve the faces of Leonard Edgar Turtle and William Weicker into the Forever in the Clouds project on Monday. He needed only two hours to complete the task.
“I came down here just to put those faces in,” Jones told Lifestyles. “I’m that much closer to being actually finished.”
The pictures he had to work with were in excellent condition, so that made his job easier.
Then he applied a coat of urethane to the monument on Monday and another layer on Tuesday before he returned to his hometown of Rimbey, Alta. The urethane gave the monument a bronze-like appearance, making it look older than before.
“It’s a beautiful test on all of the products that I use is to put it in the southern Saskatchewan sun,” he said with a laugh.
Lester Hinzman, who is part of the monument committee, said the sculpture looks phenomenal now that Jones has carved two more faces, and applied the urethane.
Jones carved the first 17 faces into the monument last summer. The monument was transported to Estevan in September 2017, and a dedication ceremony was held a short time later. It has been standing at the Estevan Regional Airport since then.
The monument was moved to Hinzman’s farm earlier this month. It will remain at Hinzman’s property for some time.
Hinzman recalled that when the Soldiers’ Tree was being carved in 2015, there were a lot of people travelling to the site to watch Jones at work and to marvel at the project. He hopes to see a large crowd again to admire Forever in the Clouds.
“I encourage it, because we need the young to know about what our military has done for us, because we live in a great country, and we owe it to the men and men who served in the military for us,” said Hinzmen.
Members of the fire department and the police agencies also sacrifice a lot so that Canadians can enjoy their current quality of life, Hinzman said.
He noted that his property is just a couple of kilometres from the plane went down in 1946.
Jones said it’s tough to leave Estevan when there is still work remaining on the project. The committee is still looking for the photos of Clifford Somerville Coppin and Vitantos Luke Kirko. Jones stressed that the monument will not be complete without those two faces.
It would be nice to get some quality photos, but he can work with what he gets.
“To get them all would be wonderful, especially with where we were last year with those first 17,” said Jones.
He will also add a poem that committee member Lester Hinzman has written about the pilots.
A permanent home for the monument has not been determined.
“I know it will get to a really nice place. It is a very unique sculpture and it means a lot,” said Jones.
