ARTS + CULTURE Bronze Ambassadors Beckon Visitors to Corsicana By Lisa Tang The city of Corsicana extends its hospitality through a unique group of ambassadors who stand throughout the town on street corners and in front of key buildings and memorials — permanently.
try chef leans over to offer a fruitcake to passersby; and a pet wolf guards the spot where its owner Lyman T. Davis first served his famous Wolf Brand Chili.
Corsicana’s Bronze Sculpture Tour is a life-sized art exhibit that tells stories about the unique individuals who built the city’s history.
The statues invoke curiosity while beckoning visitors to learn more about the city’s heritage. Most are located on the streets of downtown, while others are a short drive from the town’s center. All are highly visible and accessible, making Corsicana a tour-worthy destination.
Created by different artists, most of the lifelike sculptures interact with the cityscape: an oil field worker appears to cross a street on his way home; a pas-
Curious visitors who want to learn more about the figures and their role in the town’s heritage can visit the Corsicana Visitors Center, which provides a map
and a narrated audio tour at www.visitcorsicana.com. The center is located at 301 South Beaton Street. Call (903) 654-4850 for information. Visitors can also scan a QR code on each sculpture with a smart phone camera to quickly access the audio tour.
Oil Field Worker
The Oil Field Worker was the first statue officially created for the Corsicana Bronze Tour and pays homage to thousands of men who worked during the city’s oil boom days. Though the city hired contractors to dig for water in 1894, they discovered oil instead. After many more wells were dug, the Magnolia Oil Company — the precursor of Mobil Oil — built the first commercial oil refinery in the West in Corsicana. Bronze artist Lisa Perry depicts the oil field worker striding home satisfactorily after a full day of work. He carries a long-handled wrench and a lunch pail, two essentials in the field. The statue is dedicated to all oilfield workers in the region and was commissioned by Joe Brooks of the group Art in Public Places. The E.M. Shepherd Foundation provided funding for the project, which was installed in 2012 at the downtown corner of 6th Avenue and Beaton Street.
Jim Acree
Extending a football as if handing it to a player, the sculpture of Coach Jim Acree stands at the corner of West 6th Avenue and South Beaton Street. Acree led the Corsicana Tigers to state football victory in an undefeated season in 1963. A group of former players commissioned artist J. Payne Lara to create the sculpture which was installed in 2017.
Collin Street Bakery
Artist J. Payne Lara pays homage to Corsicana’s reputation as “fruitcake capital of the world” with this sculpture of Collin Street Bakery’s 60-year employee Jerry Grimmitt. Holding a life-sized fruitcake, Grimmitt leans over as if offering it to passersby at the bakery’s Sevcontinued page 36 34 • WWW.COUNTYLINEMAGAZINE.COM • MARCH/APRIL 2021
