Sunshine Mine Happy Family Statue

Wallace, Idaho

Seven years after Ken Lonn sculpted his somber Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial in Kellogg, the Sunshine Mine commissioned him to make this cheery counterpoint. It was unveiled outside the mine entrance, then spent time in front of a company building, but its relatively remote location meant that its positive message went unappreciated, seen by far fewer eyes than the disaster statue just off the interstate. So in 2005 the Mine moved its Happy Family statue to a spot next to the Wallace Idaho Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center, also just off the interstate.

The grinning silver miner poses with the tools of his trade while his wife looks on lovingly, his daughter carries his lunch pail, and his son waves a kid-size spade like a future miner in solidarity. See? Mining isn't all suffocation and death; it's a family thing.