Mysterious Creatures Appear In Downtown Park

A grasshopper is one of the mystery sculptures found at Centennial Park in Rogers.
A grasshopper is one of the mystery sculptures found at Centennial Park in Rogers.

ROGERS — Downtown merchants are pleased but baffled about the two metal sculptures that mysteriously appeared recently in Centennial Park.

“I have no idea where they come from, but they are cute,” said Clarice Moore, owner of The Rabbit’s Lair, 116 S. First St. “I go by every day to make sure they are still there.”

The metal sculptures — a horned toad and a green and yellow grasshopper— appeared in the flower beds of Centennial Park about a week ago, merchants said.

“I go by every day to make sure they are still there.”

Clarice Moore

The Rabbit’s Lair owner

“Nobody has come forward to lay claim to making or placing the two sculptures,” said Bill Schopp of Poor Richard’s Art, 101 W. Walnut St.

Centennial Park, just south of Walnut Street on First Street, is part of the city park inventory, said Andrea Brinton, assistant park director.

“We didn’t have anything to do with the sculptures. We found out about them when we were contacted by downtown merchants asking if we had put the sculptures out. We didn’t and we don’t know anything about where they came from,” Brinton said.

Kerry Jensen, executive director of Main Street Rogers, also is in the dark about the art.

“I asked one of the people in the Parks Department about it last week when I discovered the artwork. Like everybody else, I don’t know who created the sculptures, but I think they look good in the flower beds,” Jensen said.

Mike Reese, a metal sculptor who created a large flower and bird for the flower bed next to The Rabbit’s Lair, said he didn’t make the horned toad or the grasshopper.

“I had some calls, people thinking I created the sculptures, but I didn’t. There is another guy who sculpts in metal and I thought it might be his work until I looked at them. It’s not his style, not even close, so I don’t think it was him. It might have been the girl at the Brick Street Botanical,” Reese said.

“We didn’t have anything to do with the sculptures,” said Eric Mang, husband of Holly Mang, owner of Brick Street Botanical, 105 W. Walnut St. “We haven’t even seen the sculptures, we’ve been too busy.”

Reese joked perhaps the police should be brought into the case of the appearing sculptures.

“It’s a real mystery and people are sure talking about it,” Reese said.

Main Street Rogers officials have been considering placing art work in public places, Jensen said.

“We have about $5,000 from the Business Committee, a group of merchants, that used to plan events for downtown a few years ago. Our plan is to have some artwork created for the bump outs and other public property downtown,” Jensen said.

Janet Atwood, chairman of the the Main Street Rogers Design Committee, said the city first needs a policy for placing art work in public places.

“We are in the process of preparing a policy on artwork on public property. We want to make sure the city has some control over the type, size and other issues regarding art on public property,” Atwood said.

When the committee completes a draft proposal, Main Street representatives will present it to city officials for review and the writing of an ordinance.

“Once that’s done we can discuss what kind of artwork we want,” Atwood said.

Upcoming Events