Pioneer Mother: a Mom-ument

Clare, Michigan

In 1938 the students at what was then Clare High School (now its Middle School) used money from their senior class fund to pay sculptor Samuel Cashwan to create "Pioneer Mother." He sculpted a young woman with sad eyes and an unnaturally thin head. She sits, draped in a loose-fitting gown, with no shoes. In her right arm she cradles a young child, in her left she holds a staff; its top was later snapped off. Clare's sports teams still call themselves the Pioneers in her honor.

After decades of neglect, well-meaning locals wanted to give their mom a good power-washing, but were stopped when they learned that her limestone probably wouldn't survive the spray. The statue was professionally cleaned in 2013.