RICE LAKE — Community members can expect to visit a new statue honoring veterans from every war this spring in Rice Lake. “The Burden” is an approximately 1,000-pound bronze statue depicting a paratrooper kneeling after landing in Afghanistan based on a photograph by a photojournalist and an artistic rendering by Tim Cortes.

Work preparing the site for the memorial on the corner of Rice and Martin roads near the Kwik Trip is nearly complete, according to John Marshall, captain of the Duluth Honor Guard and organizer for the memorial.

“You’re looking at a little over $100,000 worth of work here by HMI, Kraus Anderson, Northland Constructors, Darrell Johnson and Duluth Electric,” Marshall said. “Everyone has donated time and energy to this as well and we probably need about $40,000-50,000 more to complete this vision.”

The vision came from the late mayor of Rice Lake and fellow veteran John Werner. He approached Marshall, Darrell Johnson, and Pat Gallagher with the project vision last year shortly before his death.

The group started raising funds for the project and Marshall reached out to Cortes to work up a rendering and Tim Cleary, a professor of visual arts at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, to create the bronze statue. Cleary has worked on veteran memorial statues previously at the Duluth International Airport: one of Tuskegee Airman Joe Gomer and one of pilot David Wheat, a prisoner of war.

“I’ve learned a lot about veterans throughout each of these projects. I think the emphasis of the burden really sank in with this one,” Cleary said. “Burden is an easy word to throw out, but when you think about the toll that service can take on not just the individual, but the family members, physically, emotionally, it makes a greater impact.”

Cleary said the process of creating the statue went smoothly. It is nearly complete as it sits in the UWS sculpture workshop.

While a lot of work has been done on the statue and site, Marshall said more work is still yet to come. Each of the wooden markers around the site will include plaques dedicated to veterans of each war from the Civil War through Afghanistan.

Each of the six sides of the statue’s base will include information about its creation, about John Werner, the main contributors to the project and more information about the burden of the veteran and a few others which haven’t been decided quite yet. The site will also include benches and a few other features which have yet to be added.

“I wanted the community to know where we’re at and where we still need to go and what we need to get there,” Marshall said. “We’ve come a long way in a little under a year, but there’s still more to come.”

Marshall anticipates the statue placement and opening later this spring.

To donate to the project, send checks or money orders to Duluth Honor Guard, memo “Rice Lake Memorial Park,” 5814 Grand Ave., Duluth MN, 55807.

Teri Cadeau is a K-12 education reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area for eight years including: The Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader and crafter.