THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 A3
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
UNSUNG HERO, MYSTERIOUS ARTWORK | SLAVE ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION
Bust of Black pioneer goes up in Portland
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Last year, protesters against
racial injustice toppled numer-
ous statues around the coun-
try. Now, one of the first works
of art to emerge in their place
depicts an unsung hero of the
Lewis and Clark expedition.
A huge bust of York, a Black
man who was enslaved by Wil-
liam Clark and who was the
first African American to cross
the continent and reach the
Pacific Ocean, is sitting atop a
pedestal amid a lushly forested
park in Portland. It was placed
there in the dead of night last
weekend by persons unknown.
People have flocked to the
bust, which seems to be at
least 4 feet tall, in Mount Ta-
bor Park. The artist’s depiction
of York shows him seemingly
deep in thought or even sad,
his eyes cast downward. York
hadn’t been painted contempo-
raneously, so how his face re-
ally looked is unknown.
Officials in the city, which
has been an epicenter of Black
Lives Matter protests since the
killing of George Floyd, love
what the head of the parks
department called “guerrilla
art.”
“This past summer, there’s
been concern about some of
the public art that many states
have displayed, and so folks re-
ally see this installation as a bit
of a reckoning,” Portland Parks
and Recreation Director Adena
Long said in an interview. “The
story of York is really compel-
ling and very sad.”
Passersby stare up at the bust
or touch the tall stone pedes-
tal. The anonymous artist af-
fixed a plaque describing how
York was an integral part of the
1804-1806 expedition to find
an all-water route to the Pa-
FINAL NS!
OW
D
K
R
A
M
Oregon-Idaho
boundary
measure gets
on another
county ballot
BY PAT CALDWELL
Malheur Enterprise
Mark Graves/The Oregonian
A bust of York, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, is seen on Mount Tabor in southeast Portland on Sunday. The statue appeared the day
before.
cific, but then was denied his
freedom by Clark after it was
over.
Since the killing of Floyd in
Minneapolis last May, hun-
dreds of symbols of racism
and other dark chapters of U.S.
history have been removed.
Among them were at least 167
Confederate symbols, accord-
ing to the Southern Poverty
Law Center.
Deciding what to replace
downed statues with, commis-
sioning the artists and having
the work done takes time.
Whoever made the gigantic
head of York circumvented all
that by producing the bust —
officials believe it might have
been done with a 3D printer
— getting it into the park with-
out being detected and then
placing it on top of the pedes-
tal, which itself is around 10
feet high.
It’s likely the artist had col-
laborators to install it. On
Friday night, as is customary,
park rangers shut gates on
the roads and locked them
at 10 p.m. closing time. On
Up To
Saturday morning, a main-
tenance worker saw the York
bust, perched on a pedestal
where a statue of a conserva-
tive figure who opposed wom-
en’s right to vote had stood
until someone knocked it over
last year.
“None of those gates had
been damaged. None of those
locks had been damaged. And
so we do feel that this was
brought in on foot,” said Tim
Collier, community relations
manager for the city parks de-
partment.
They had to transport the
bust, which seems to be com-
posed of plastic or composite
of synthetic material, at least
1,000 feet uphill from the near-
est road access.
Collier said that in the leg-
ends of the expedition, York’s
role has been overlooked, and
that the bust “is really further-
ing that conversation here in
our very, very white city.”
Long hopes the artist comes
forward to possibly have a con-
versation about making York a
permanent art installation.
50% off
VALE — Malheur
County voters will face
a ballot measure in May
linked to the movement to
shift a number of rural Ore-
gon counties into Idaho.
The measure would re-
quire the Malheur County
Court to meet three times
a year to consider a plan to
move the Oregon-Idaho
border.
Proponents of Measure
23-64 acquired enough sig-
natures Feb. 17 to put it on
the May 18 special election
ballot, said Gail Trotter,
Malheur County clerk.
The measure needed 539
signatures and Trotter said
her office was able to vali-
date 563.
Voter approval would
require the county court
to meet and discuss “how
to promote the interests
of Malheur County in any
negotiations, regarding
the relocation of the Ore-
gon-Idaho border.”
The measure is backed
by the group Greater Idaho.
The goal of the nonprofit is
to slice off 18 counties and
incorporate them into Idaho.
Mike McCarter, a La Pine
resident and president of
Greater Idaho, said he was
pleased the measure gained
enough signatures.
In November, voters in
Jefferson and Union coun-
ties approved measures
pushing their leaders to meet
about the boundary change.
*
Select Furniture and Mattresses
FINAL
DISCOU
NTS
!
IN
A
G
R
A
B
S
’
N
O
R
S
E
L
T
I
W
*
CEN
F
F
O
%
75
o
t
p
U
Free D
Delivery & Special Financing Available**
ble**
bl
SALE ENDS FEBRUARY 28 TH
2017 S Hwy 97, Redmond • 541-548-2066
63485 N Hwy 97, Bend • 541-330-5084
www.WilsonsOfRedmond.net
**See store for details. *Off Compare at Price