Faces of Belle Isle

There are great statues all over Belle Isle, and a reminder of Detroit's past behind each one. The folks at Waymarking.com even make a kind of game of visiting memorial statues, historical sites, etc. - a great hobby for history geeks (who, me? you? us?).

Above is one of the gentleman from the Spanish American War Memorial, shown in full below. I think of him as, "the swashbuckler", and his partner on the left as, "the rifleman".

More of the Swashbuckler...

And his partner the Rifleman...

The Civil War is remembered in this Grand Army of the Republic statue....

Another memorial related to the Civil War is that of General Alpheus Starkey Williams on horseback.... He (along with his marvelous horse Plug Ugly) is the subject of this really entertaining website.

The Williams statue was done by Henry Shrady, who was the sculptor for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, D.C., known for his exceptional horses.

It's not just the war heroes with statues. There are writers.....

Poets....

Above: Johann Friedrich Schiller, who wrote "Ode To Joy", which Beethoven set to music. The German community contributed his statue to the island in 1908.

Unpopular, controversial businessmen.... this is James Scott, who left money in his will to build the beautiful Scott Fountain, stipulating that a life-size statue of himself be built as well. J. L Hudson said of him, "Mr. Scott never did anything for Detroit in his lifetime and he never had a thought that was good for the city."

Children... the lovely girl of the Children's Christian Temperance Fountain in the Conservatory..

More children....and dogs....

and finally what I think of the most when I think of Belle Isle....

... the remarkable, always changing blue of the Detroit River... today it is sapphire, with the promise of summer (no color enhancement needed on this sunny spring day).