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That’ll do, pig

Floyd of Rosedale sculpture construction underway

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert Soon, the area in front of Rosedale Rapids Aquatic Park will be a monument to the Floyd of Rosedale, a legend rooted in Fort Dodge. The installation will be completed by late winter or early spring.

The Floyd of Rosedale art sculpture is now coming to fruition with construction – an installation that will ham up Fort Dodge’s public art scene with a locally rooted legend of how football teams overcame racial disputes.

“It’s a dream that has become a reality,” said Fort Dodge City Councilman Dave Flattery. “You’ve got to really sell the public on a project like this, but that hasn’t been hard because it’s a really great story.”

The eye turner, construction for which started over a week ago just northeast of the roundabout at 10th Avenue North and North 32nd Street, is scheduled for full completion by late winter or early spring, according to Flattery. The plaza built to display the hog will be completed within two weeks by Russ’s Construction, of Fort Dodge,

After well over a year of planning, complications posed by the pandemic interrupted the supply chain for materials needed, delaying the completion initially slated for this fall.

Late last year, the idea that started as an installation in the middle of the roundabout near Rosedale Rapids Aquatic Center transitioned to a nearby plot adjacent to the center, intersecting bike trails.

-Submitted graphic A rendering of the Floyd of Rosedale statue from artist Dale Merrill.

“It was all about accessibility and safety, that’s why we moved it,” Flattery said.

At the stone octagon plaza surrounding Floyd will be a 29 inch high stone wall, a kiosk displaying the story behind the famous swine and a donor wall recognizing private funders who brought the bacon in generous support of the campaign for the art piece.

Floyd’s patina-like construction will display layers of the metal, giving depth and dimension to the trophy replication that will require little maintenance and, over time, transform into rustic colors of varying degrees. With input from the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, Mount Vernon artist Dale Merrill incorporated inspiration in the metal design from the rolling hills and agricultural topography of Iowa.

The Cor-ten weathering steel used in construction will develop a protective oxide layer that prevents further corrosion as it ages through wet and dry cycles. Floyd, measuring 10 feet tall and 15 feet long, will tower at 14 feet with a pedestal.

“The organic layered forms are intended to represent the topographical elevation changes and planted rows of crops that weave randomly throughout our iconic farming landscape,” said Merrill, whose earliest memories being raised on a farm included scattering feed to piglets. “My thoughts on the stacked layers are an element of past and present natural resources, culture and communities layered yet evolving and growing together as they stand together as ultimately one form, thus representing both agricultural heritage and growth.”

-Submitted graphic A bird’s eye aerial view of the Floyd of Rosedale sculpture shows the sculpture’s eventual placement.

The city’s Public Arts Commission hopes the new art will attract more tourism, especially given its location near a bike path and park. Flattery said that Fort Dodge has already seen part of that artistic awakening, and hopes the iconic figure will help propel it further with education on the legacy behind the pig. The monument could become a destination in its own right, similar to the grain silo painted by Guido van Helten off Hawkeye Avenue.

The tradition that lives in the form of a trophy held by the winner of games between the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, Division I college football teams, started as a wager for a live hog, offered to Iowa Gov. Clyde Herring by Minnesota Gov. Floyd Olson.

The Hawkeyes’ running back, Ozzie Simmons, had been knocked out three times during a previous game against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. He was one of the few black players at the time.

Iowa lost the 1935 game, so Herring obtained a hog from Allen Loomis, the owner of dairy-producing Rosedale Farms outside of Fort Dodge. Herring named it Floyd and had it delivered to the Minnesota governor’s office.

At a Public Arts Commission meeting last August, member Jane Gibbs called the symbol “the essence of equality, justice and sportsmanship.”

Merrill said in his initial proposal that he plans to convey a collection of Iowa memories and traditions “into a timeless art form that portrays that of our heritage.”

Merrill’s previous work, with a specialty in abstract art installations, includes Enduring Prairie at the Coralville Public Library, Yielding at a roundabout in Marion and the West Side Rising Memorial in Cedar Rapids.

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