Stone steps ease access to Indian statue

by Barbara McCabe

The Indian statue, one of the most popular sites in the Wissahickon, is now more accessible as the result of a joint effort by the Friends of the Wissahickon and the Fairmount Park Commission.

The statue, which is a tribute to the Lenape Indians who hunted and fished in the Wissahickon prior to the arrival of the colonists, can now be visited via stone steps that lead down to the statue off the White Trail.

With the help of a private donation, the Friends of the Wissahickon hired FPC stonemasons, who worked weekends to construct the steps. The FPC cooperated in the effort by delivering the large flat stones to the construction site. Landscape architect Heidi Shusterman, of Chestnut Hill, volunteered to design the location of the steps.

"The steps were designed to look as natural as possible," said FOW board member Ed Stainton, who heads up the structures committee on the group's conservation committee. "They are made from native Wissahickon schist rock. They should last as long as the marble Indian."

The stone steps bypass the rotted wooden steps that are embedded in the slope leading to the statue. The wooden steps, which were put in by the FPC about 10 years ago, will remain in place to prevent the slope from eroding.

With the new steps in place, the FOW can now complete the rest of the landscaping around the Indian statue. The remaining landscaping, which will include planting shrubbery and constructing a retention wall on the slope leading the statue, is scheduled to be completed this spring.

"Hikers will now be able to sit on this retention wall and gaze up at the statue," said Dave Dannenberg, a member of the FOW board of directors, who serves on the conservation committee's trails committee. "With the rest of the landscaping in place, our three-year effort to restore the site around the statue will be complete."

In commemoration of its 100th birthday in 2002, the graffiti-covered statue was completely cleaned and restored through a joint effort of the FOW, the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust and the City of Philadelphia, along with a grant from the national Save Outdoor Sculpture project.

The dramatic 15-foot high sculpture, which is mistakenly believed to depict Chief Tedyuscung, the most famous member of the Lenape tribe, is not easy to reach on foot, but can be viewed from Forbidden Drive across the creek if one stands just north of the path to the Rex Avenue bridge.

The white marble statue, created in 1902 by then-prominent sculptor John Massey Rhind, was designed to commemorate the passing of the native Lenape from the region. For this reason, the Indian depicted in the statue has his hand to his brow, looking west in the direction of the departing tribe. Rhind was not concerned with accurate representation since he gave this East Coast forest Indian a Western plains Indian war bonnet. The statue, which was hauled to the site by workhorses, is situated on "Council Rock," the place where the ancient Lenapes are believed to have held their pow-wows.

As part of the project, the FOW will also be making improvements to the White Trail, which leads to the statue from a trailhead off Rex Avenue on the east side of the Park.

The historical information for this article was derived from a Friends of the Wissahickon newsletter article written by associate editor Dena Sher for the statue's 100th birthday commemoration in October 2002.