Chief Pontiac in Keyser Park - Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
N 41° 10.033 W 081° 32.001
17T E 455257 N 4557457
A 16½-foot-tall carving of Chief Pontiac sits on a hill in Keyser Park at 782 West Bath Rd in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The carving was made by local resident Joe Frohnapfel. It was dedicated September 6, 2008.
Waymark Code: WMRA7B
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 05/30/2016
Views: 3
From an article in the Akron Beacon Journal, June 18, 2011: Chief Pontiac has been here before.
That's the story Dreama Powell, president of the Northampton Historical Society, tells.
On Wednesday [June 15], Powell was on hand as a 16½-foot carving of the Ottawa Indian chief was dropped onto a 4-foot-high base on a hillside at Keyser Park near Northampton and West Bath roads.
"He grew up here. He spent his youth here," Powell said of Pontiac, subject of the eighth American Indian statue donated to the public by Stow sculptor Joe Frohnapfel.
According to the Web site, (
visit link) the chief lived from 1720 to 1798 and "was rugged, yet charismatic; strong, but gentle; a warrior, as well as a diplomat."
His statue, carved from the trunk of a century-old white oak, was hoisted into the air by a crane from Stillwell Equipment of Peninsula and placed on the base just before 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Most of the carving had been done with a chain saw, but the "fine detail is with hammer and chisel," Frohnapfel said.
As the statue was fitted into place, Carson Norris and Justin Whitely, both 12 and seventh-graders at Woodridge Middle School, snapped pictures on their cell phones of the newest inhabitant of the park.
"That's cool," Carson said as he looked at the image he had just taken.
Powell, who also was photographing the event, told the boys they had just seen something important happen.