Folks, you know I'm a huge fan of woodcarver Peter Toth. Toth has traveled to every single state to carve a giant head that is representative of the indigenous people in that area.
I've been covering our local "Indian Monument," Waokiye pretty extensively in previous posts. Waokiye just got some much-needed restoration work done in February and I'm going to be releasing the video of that work in a couple o' weeks.
Now, as I said before, I'm a big fan of the Whispering Giants, but that is nothing compared to Bonnie and David Schumaker; they literally plan their trips around going to see the Giants, and have "bagged" most of them. Dave has set up a beautiful website with photos and stories about all the Giants they've collected. The Schumakers planned a trip to Hawaii to get one of the last ones on their list.
When this message from Dave came across my digital desk, I just about fell out of my chair! This
Giant needs some help fast - people of Hawaii, you need to do something about this horrible situation! "The second day, armed with pre-researched location directions, we drove to find the statue," he said. "Asking a local, we found, to our dismay, that the statue and the house it was in front of, had been demolished. I talked with a person that lived across the street and he told me to talk with the man who lived next door to the statue. Finding and talking with that man revealed to me that just maybe the contractor had secretly saved the statue!
We drove to a small northern island town and asked around. A man directed us to a man who carved small statues for sale.
Yes, he had seen it and he told us how to get there. His directions were confusing and we ended seven miles away before we asked again. A man who was at this place finally said, “follow me”, and he drove us back to where we started. He pulled over at the site and got out and came over and said, “I can’t believe it is gone!” He thought maybe they had laid the statue flat on the ground, so we walked across a field looking for it. We came to a dirt road and followed it about a block. We spotted the back of the log and when we arrived at the front of it, there he was, in all his glory. Standing in the middle of a compost pile! We called the contractor for more information concerning the fate of the statue, and as of this writing have not heard back from him.
- Dave & Bonnie"
Maui Pohaku Loa, we're wishing you the best. Hang in there - it ain't over til it's over.
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