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Together for Taft, a nonprofit organization, is raising funds to restore the Lorado Taft Campus in Oregon, IL, site of Taft’s statue, “The Eternal Indian,” which rises dramatically over a 70-foot bluff on the Rock River. (Follow this story: https://togetherfortaft.org/about-us/ )
Some history: At the end of 2024, Northern Illinois University stopped funding The Lorado Taft Campus which had been used for years as an outdoor and environmental education center. Students and educators from northern Illinois communities flocked to the former site of the Eagles Nest Artist Colony for this interdisciplinary experience.
Taft founded a community of painters, writers and sculptors near Oregon, IL in 1898. It lasted until the last member died in 1942. In 1951, NIU established the Lorado Taft Field Campus.
While walking with his friends from the art colony along the Rock River, Taft came up with the idea of memorializing Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk and Fox tribes in the early 19th century. The monument, called “The Eternal Indian,” was completed in 1911. It must be seen to be appreciated. At 48 feet high and cast of iron-reinforced concrete, it is the 28th tallest statue in the United States. It was entered on the National Registrar of Historic Places in 2009.
Taft endowed Chief Black Hawk with the same visionary and heroic qualities he gave to his monumental statue of George Washington in Seattle. He didn’t consider it a portrait, but called it “The Eternal Indian.” Taft explained, “I did not study any type of face of Indians. It is a composite of the Fox, the Sauks, the Sioux, the Mohawks…I have left off the usual Indian trappings, the feather, the buckskin and other conventional signs. There is even a hint of the Old Roman, which was necessary to make it suggest a spirit unconquered while still the conquered race. To be suggestive rather than direct is what I aim at.”
If the art lovers, science lovers, educators and environmentalists come together, we can save Taft’s legacy in Illinois. Please check out the Together for Taft website.
Consider coming to an event or fundraiser to bring back the Lorado Taft campus, details found on the website. A decade ago, the Black Hawk Restoration Committee came together to raise funds to restore the statue, completed in 2020. We expect this group can do the same.
Please consider making the trip to Lowden State Park in Oregon to see the statue and take the sculpture walk around Oregon. The second floor of the Oregon Public Library has an impressive collection of paintings by the members of Eagles Nest Art Colony (and a few sculptures.)