History
Design of the shrine was commissioned by local architect Charles E. Thomas and construction included 5000 cubic yards of Cheyenne Mountain granite, quarried from a single stone, and is anchored 28 feet into solid rock. The shrine was built without using wood or nails, being secured with 200,000 pounds of steel, and construction included the use of approximately 30 wagon loads of cement. Five stories tall the elevation of the top deck, at 8,136 feet, is 1,336 above the zoo. In front of the shrine, in the 10-acre courtyard, is a bust of Will Rogers that was commissioned to Paris artist Jo Davidson.
The first floor is called the "Historical Room" and contains murals by New Mexico artist Randall Davey that depicts early development of the Pikes Peak region. The murals were restored in 1993 by Eric Bransby and includes:
- Native American scenes
- Zebulon Pikes travels
- Gold discoveries in Cripple Creek
- Activities of the founder of Colorado Springs General William Palmer
The next three floors contain a photographic history of Will Rogers from his early childhood days in Oklahoma through his time on stage, screen and radio. The last mural is of Will and Wiley Post taken just prior to the fatal crash.
The lower floor contains the chapel, pews and an altar, and 15th and 16th century European art objects. The remains of Spencer and Julie Penrose are interred in the chapel along with two long time friends and colleagues, Larry Leonard and Horace Devereaux. The shrine has a set of Westminster chimes that can be heard every quarter hour throughout the valley and was dedicated on September 6, 1937.
Read more about this topic: Will Rogers Shrine Of The Sun
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)