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<\/a>DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\nFor 40 years, a little piece of New York Harbor has stood above the Susquehanna River, becoming one of Dauphin County\u2019s most recognizable and quirky landmarks.<\/p>\n
The Statue of Liberty replica, visible from Route 22 between Dauphin and Marysville, has long drawn curiosity from drivers and pride from local residents. <\/p>\n
The statue stands as a landmark for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a landmark for Dauphin,\u201d Kathy Fisher, librarian for the Dauphin Middle Paxton Historical Society, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just really can\u2019t think of anything else like it that we have here,\u201d Fisher said. <\/p>\n
Four decades later <\/p>\n
This year marks 40 years since the first statue went up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing that two generations have passed and people still are amazed by it,\u201d Gene Stilp, creator of Lady Liberty, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd people still look at it. And it still inspires people,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n
For years, people wondered who put it there. <\/p>\n
The secret beginning <\/p>\n
Stilp said he made the first and second Statues of Liberty that sit in the river.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the honor of making the first and the second statues of Liberty that sit in the river,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n
He said the project began in 1986. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only supposed to last eight weeks, till Labor Day, when we were going to sneak it down,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n
He said he was inspired by the restored Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were going to have a great celebration for the restored Statue of Liberty in New York City\u2019s harbor,\u201d Stilip said. \u201cAnd I thought we should do something to honor her here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He chose the pier after measuring from shore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was coming down the river one day. I see the old, northern Central Railway pier out there,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cI said that would be very good if she\u2019s pretty centrally located.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building the statue <\/p>\n
The statue had to be built in sections, because it kept getting bigger and bigger in the process of planning. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe concept was to build a structure whereby every foot there would be a piece of plywood,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The design allowed wind to pass through. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt first I didn\u2019t know, but then I started to put a little 4×4 up,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cAnd then I started putting plywood every one foot.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
He said the hardest part was the arm, head and crown. <\/p>\n
The night it went up <\/p>\n
Stilp said the statue was taken out by canoe and jon boat. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe raised the big statue up horizontally, and then stood it up,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cWe had one guy who free climb the pier, threw the ropes down. The rest of us pulled ourselves up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the group left quietly in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe went very, very, very late at night. 2:00 in the morning, had pizza and some beers and took a vow of silence,\u201d Stilp said.<\/p>\n
The reaction<\/p>\n
The statue quickly became a local sensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat on the riverbank and we watched all these cars, you know, stopping and looking,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cThe state police were going nuts trying to get traffic moving,\u201d <\/p>\n
Keeping it up <\/p>\n
Stilp said he eventually decided to leave it in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould I leave it up there longer than eight weeks? And the answer to me was yes,\u201d Stilip said. \u201cLet people enjoy it. People liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first version stayed up for years, until storm damage brought it down in 1992.<\/p>\n
Bringing it back<\/p>\n
The community helped raise money to rebuild it.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople all over the area and also from out of town, they made donations,\u201d Stilpsaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made T-shirts and sold T-shirts at different places,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cWe had made hats. Wherever we could make money, we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The effort raised more than $20,000.<\/p>\n
The new statue <\/p>\n
To build the new version, Stilp said he used a small Statue of Liberty and even had it scanned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called a friend, and I said, you know, I have a small Statue of Liberty,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cDo you think we can run this through the Cat scan?\u201d<\/p>\n
The new statue arrived in 1997.<\/p>\n
WATCH THE ORIGINAL SEGMENT FROM WGAL:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came right here to Fort Hunter, right across the street in two big pieces,\u201d Stilp said. \u201cAnd then two days later, the helicopter came in and airlifted it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Local memories <\/p>\n
For Trudy Koppenhaver, a 73-year resident of Dauphin County, the day remains unforgettable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember it just like it was yesterday,\u201d Koppenhaver said. \u201cLike you remember where you were when JFK passed away,\u201d <\/p>\n
She said her family was surprised by what they saw.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is going on out in the river?\u201d Koppenhaver said. \u201cAnd they were like, oh my gosh, there\u2019s the Statue of Liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the day was a community moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stayed around and talked with everybody,\u201d Koppenhaver said. \u201cIt was just a glorious time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wilbur Evans Jr. said the first day brought traffic problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the first day the statue went up,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThere were accidents all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later helped remove the old statue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI helped take the old one out,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt was mostly Venetian blinds, plywood and spray foam, but it was still really heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to get out of the boats and we had ropes,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt was several hundred pounds that we had to get up over the embankment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preserving the history <\/p>\n
Fisher said the historical society keeps items from the statue\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these items you see here, the T-shirts, the hat, the mugs, they were all sold to raise money,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cThis was the committee to save the statue,\u201d <\/p>\n
She said preserving the past matters for future generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe our grandchildren won\u2019t remember when the statue went up, but they can look in our books,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cWe have to preserve it for future generations.\u201d <\/p>\n
What it stands for <\/p>\n
Stilip said the statue represents American values.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife, liberty, pursuit of happiness. It stands for the welcoming of immigrants.\u201d Stilip said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not my statue,\u201d Stilip said. \u201cIt belongs to the people of Pennsylvania.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up-close look by boat at Susquehanna’s Statue Of Liberty as landmark celebrates 40 years DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[32564,46947,9433,133219,133216,133217,14282,9,24,4180,63,1232,15255,133221,18632,134,136,135,880,23589,133218,120365,2892,133220,3442],"class_list":["post-357542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-america250","tag-dauphin-county","tag-day","tag-fisher","tag-gene-stilp","tag-lady-liberty","tag-liberty","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-harbor","tag-nyc","tag-people","tag-place","tag-plywood","tag-river","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-statue","tag-statue-of-liberty","tag-stilip","tag-susquehanna-river","tag-t-shirts","tag-trudy-koppenhaver","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}