223. Crowell, Foard County

Interesting factoid: this is the second courthouse, built in 1910, and used to have a clock dome.  Unfortunately the dome was destroyed by a tornado in 1942 but the rest of the building was repaired and is still in use.

More interesting is the war memorial here.   Both statues were designed by E.M. Viquesney and called The Spirit of the American Doughboy and The Spirit of the American Navy.  Doughboy should be familiar.  I’ve seen and photographed who knows how many without knowing what it was.  Some even claim that around 10% of WWI memorials are or contain this guy.  Navy though was nowhere near as popular.  There are only eight known to exist (seven on public display and one in private hands) and this one here in Crowell is the only one made of stone.  But look really closely at them.  Does something seem off about them?  I thought so, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.  Turns out that these were damaged in the same 1942 tornado, the doughboy losing his rifle arm, the sailor losing his cap hand.  Why is this even of note?  Because they were left that way for decades!  They weren’t repaired until 2015.  That qualifies as “interesting.”

I went around the corner to grab a 1/1 Regular, a black and white “camo” (butter spread?) container with a duck tape handle, hanging inside a tree.  This set off one of my pet peeves.  An attempt was made to obscure it so it’s not a D1.  It’s on grassy and uneven ground about 2 feet into a tree and nobody in a wheelchair could get it so it’s not a T1.  It’s the size of a large butter or sour cream container so it’s not regular.  I know it’s not that big a deal, but that’s annoying!  I, of course, claimed it anyway.  Annoyed as I was, there’s little time for sentimentality out here.  Besides, I was on track for a date with destiny.  In a little while I would reach…