Wellstone memorial takes shape on Iron Range

08/04/2005

Associated Press
August 4, 2005 WELLSTONE

IRON JUNCTION, Minn. — St. Paul sculptors Philip Rickey and Peter Morales are spending long days laboring in the sun this summer on Minnesota’s Iron Range.

The artists are working behind a dusty machine shed near Iron Junction, polishing stones from a taconite mine into tributes to the late Senator Paul Wellstone and five others who died in a plane crash just down the road.

Rickey says he feels honored to be part of creating a lasting memorial to Wellstone’s politics and his family, and to the people who worked with him.

The men began working on the stones in June and must finish in time for a Sept. 25 dedication at the memorial site. The memorial is located on a six-acre piece of land carved into the woods five miles east of Iron Junction.

The $250,000 memorial was commissioned by Wellstone Action, an organization created to promote Wellstone’s brand of progressive, grassroots politics. St. Louis County donated the land.