Art students from Keokuk High School and Ft. Madison High School have welded four metal sculptures depicting Iowa’s natural habitat.
Sculptures of a deer, an eagle, a beehive, and mosquitos are now on display along the trails at the Heron Bend Conservation Area, located along the Mississippi River a few miles north of Montrose.
The project, called Art in the Park, looks for communities to engage in environmental stewardship through creative talents.
The Lee County Leadership Group and Lee County Conservation partnered to find students to participate, and Feinberg’s Metal Recycling in Ft. Madison donated recycled metals for the project.
Caroline Sestito, Lee County Conservation Administrative and Outreach Coordinator, said the two groups contacted teachers Katie Geltz at Keokuk High and Ryan Peters at Ft. Madison High to find welding students to participate.
“We are really excited with what they came up with,” Sestito said. “We've heard a great response already from the public with how impressed they are, and so are we.”
A fun and new experience
Luke Willis, 17, said he and his fellow students selected to create a deer sculpture because the white-tailed deer is commonly found throughout the Hawkeye State.
Willis, who will be a senior at Keokuk High School this fall, said he spent almost 30 hours during two to three weeks to weld the metal sculpture.
“It was just fun and a new experience,” Willis said.
Willis said he enjoys welding as a hobby, but he might pursue a college scholarship in welding.
“It has inspired me to you know go out there and just try out new things and experience a whole lot more,” he said.
Recent Keokuk High School graduate Alexis Brown, 18, said she and her classmates used metal pieces of varying thickness to build the eagle.
“The wings are a really thick metal. Not really like 100 percent sure what it is, but then there's a couple pieces on it that are just sheet metal because it's easy to bend and such, like the talons,” Brown said, adding that the finished sculpture weighs quite a bit.
“It was pretty heavy, probably like, I'd say 20, 30 pounds at first, but then when we started like getting all the wings on there and like everything, I could not lift it anymore.”
She said she would like to continue welding for fun but might also consider a career in the field.
Collaborating to make it happen
Sestito said she is grateful for those organizations that participated in the project, which in addition to Feinberg’s Metal Recycling also included Siemens Gamesa, Climax Molybdenum, and the Iowa State Extension.
“We are just really excited with how well everybody collaborated for this,” she said. “We really want to thank the teachers from Keokuk and Fort Madison.”
Lee County Conservation manages 2,634 acres within 29 parks located across Lee County.
Lee County Leadership Group is a nine-month long program that teaches community leadership skills.
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