Doughboy statue restored at Montana Veterans' Home
The “doughboy” statue at the Montana Veterans’ Home has received a significant facelift.
The copper statue, which was built in 1928, was recently refurbished, repaired and powder coated by Acutech Works of Columbia Falls. Local veteran and city councilmember Mike Shepard spearheaded the effort to have the ailing statue repaired.
“Our job was to make it last a lot longer,” said Matt Danford of Auctech. Danford and Bryan Apple put the statue back up last Friday after the company worked on it for several months.
They said the statue, which is hollow, had several cracks and the bayonet had been broken off at one time.
Acutech crews painstakingly welded and repaired the cracks.
They put a weep hole in the end of the bayonet so the water would drain out. Shepard said prior to the restoration, the legs of the statue were in very poor shape.
The light brown powder coat is very close to the original color of the World War I uniform, Shepard said. He consulted with a veteran and military historian who lives at the home to get the color right.
The doughboy had suffered a few near fatal blows by vehicles that ran into it during the decades it stood on Kalispell’s Main Street before eventually being moved to the Veterans’ Home.
Dedicated on Nov. 11, 1928, the statue was mounted on the meridian north of the Flathead County Courthouse and for the next 44 years was a static centerpiece to the town that grew up around it.
The statue was moved to the Veterans Home in 1972.
The piece is a replica of the original “Spirit of the American Doughboy” sculpture by E.M. Viquesney, who designed it to honor the veterans and casualties of World War I.
Shepard said several veterans groups pitched in money to pay for the doughboy restoration, including the American Legion Post 72 and the local Vietnam Veterans of America Northwest Post 1087 in Somers that donated its leftover funds from the traveling Vietnam memorial wall exhibition last year.
About 150 people turned out Sunday morning — Veterans Day — to dedicate the statue and recognize World War I veterans. Shepard said he decided to have the piece restored because it’s the only World War I memorial in the county. It also coincided with the 100th anniversary of the American Legion.
There are at least two theories to where the term “doughboy” comes from to describe soldiers of the first World War.
One says the term dates back to the Mexican War of 1846-48 when American infrantrymen made long trips through dusty terrain, giving them the appearance of being covered in adobe soil, which transformed into “doughboy.”
Another says it was a descriptive term of the clay on World War I soldiers’ uniforms, which, when wet by rain, turned to doughy blobs — doughboys.