Lead Miner Statue

Bonne Terre, Missouri

The French settled the town of Bonne Terre in the early 18th century to mine the region's lead ore, eventually making it the largest lead-producing area in the U.S. "Sam," a sculpture of a bearded, 1920s-era lead miner, with pick axe at the ready, stands on a traffic island on the way into town. A reflective lamp screwed on a band around his head is made of brass-like metal. The eight-foot-tall steel and concrete statue was erected in 1981, the work of Bonne Terre sculptor Samuel Forrest Wright, whose uncles and grandfathers had all been miners. Sam, who weighs more than five tons, was moved to his current spot in 2007, at which point his arm fell off and had to be reattached.

An accompanying plaque describes the statue as, "a tribute to all miners, past and present, who were the backbone of our history."