The Sam Houston Statue
Huntsville offers a lot of atypical
attractions for tourists. As the center of
the Texas penal system, it has, on display
at the Texas Prison Museum, the “Old Sparky”
where over three hundred criminals met their
end. Another popular tourist attraction is
the Sam Houston statue located at the
southern part of Huntsville. The statue is
the tallest of all American heroes. Sam
Houston’s statue stands at a height of a
towering sixty-seven feet atop a ten foot
base.
The memorial is named, “A Tribute to
Courage”. Sam Houston’s concrete statue
bearing a walking cane towers above
Interstate 45. The popular statue, made by
artist David Adickes, is considered by many
to be the second tallest free-standing
statue in America after the Statue of
Liberty. However, there are actually larger
statues such as the seventy-six feet tall
fiberglass Golden Drillers in Tulsa, and the
ninety feet tall Our Lady of the Rockies
statue in Butte, Montana.
David Adickes began the project during the
early part of 1992. He made the 25-ton
concrete and steel structure in 10-foot
sections, which each contain five layers of
reinforced concrete. Fiberglass mesh is
incorporated in the outside layer. The
statue was dedicated two years later on
October 22, 1994.
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