Faces to recall: Artist, miners' families craft a healing place for Crandall Canyon Mine victims
Families of the lost miners chose a local artist, sculptor Karen Jobe Templeton, to design and craft a monument that will be placed in Huntington on city-owned land near the mouth of Huntington Canyon.
During the rescue attempts that followed the Aug. 6 seismic event inside the mine that trapped miners Kerry Allred, Brandon Phillips, Don Erickson, Manuel Sanchez, Louis Hernandez and Carlos Payan, the families of the trapped miners and rescuers killed 10 days later withheld from the media some of their favorite images of their loved ones, Templeton said, because they didn't want treasured memories to be branded with the tragedy.
Now, however, those cherished photos are one of several tools Templeton is using to create sculptured "portraits" of the men. She has also had family members in her Carbon County studio, having them guide her hands as she placed wax on figures that will be used to make bronze castings of the men.
Templeton said she began thinking of a tangible way to express her emotion over the mine tragedy in the frantic days when searchers were still looking for the trapped miners. With bodies still inside the mountain, the families were left without a tangible remembrance of their loved ones.
"I thought, 'What if my husband (Kent) died and I had nothing to touch?' I decided then I would at least make a bronze cast of one of the lost to give to their wife." She began working on a likeness of Dale Black, one of the rescuers, to give to his wife, Wendy.
Then when family and community plans for a memorial developed to the point that an artist was chosen to do the work, her likeness of Black became the first of nine faces she will sculpt in wax and then cast in bronze.
Each miner will be wearing a miner's hat in the sculpture on the monument. Templeton said she will make individual castings to give to each family — with or without the hat.
Sheila Phillips said the individual likeness of her son, Brandon, will be without the miner's hat.
"He had only worked in the mine 11 days," she said. "I don't want to remember him as a miner."
Recent comments
I sincerely hope this gives the family peace and comfort. Our prayers…
Praying for the families | Jan. 2, 2008 at 1:14 p.m.
Very touching tribute.
mel | Jan. 2, 2008 at 10:41 a.m.
What a tribute...Could not read this story because of the tears in…
K | Jan. 2, 2008 at 9:22 a.m.
