Franklin Elementary getting new wooden sculpture of namesake

~ August Birk's work can be found all over Cape Girardeau.

Ben Franklin has seen better days.

Right now he's missing an arm, and his legs are in bad shape.

But thanks to its creator, August Birk, the life-size Ben Franklin wood carving outside Cape Girardeau's Franklin Elementary is being replaced with a new one, something that Birk has been doing a lot over the approximately 20 years he's been making large carvings from tree trunks.

Like the Franklin carving, Birk says, many of his projects have started to weather. Some have vanished into history, while others have been restored or rebuilt like Franklin.

"You have to keep checking them for cracks, and when you see them you have to fill them or paint over them," Birk says about halfway through his Franklin remake. "It's just like taking care of a deck on the back of a house."

Birk started out on a whim, with no formal training in wood sculpture. At first he made his creations entirely with a chain saw -- a tool he still uses. Now he has the back of a pickup filled largely with power tools and attachments that give him the ability to add greater detail to his sculptures.

The 81-year-old's work can be found all over Cape Girardeau in private yards and public areas. Some are seen by countless numbers of people, like the Louis Lorimier carving at Cape Rock Park. Others sit in people's homes out of view to all but residents and visitors.

One visible carving, and one of Birk's most recent, is the Abraham Lincoln carving at the home of Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Jay Purcell.

"It's one of those things where you're out in your yard and you see it, and you know it's the only one like it around," Purcell said. "You can buy statues of Abe Lincoln, but you've got the only one by August Birk."

Rhonda Dunham, principal of Franklin Elementary, said she can't wait until old Ben is on his pedestal -- also being built by Birk, out of materials that won't rot like wood will.

She wasn't at Franklin when the PTA commissioned Birk to make the carving in 1999, but in her time at the school she has become attached to the sculpture.

"I definitely think it enhances the grounds, and I think it has become a symbol throughout the district," Dunham said. Since the sculpture blew over in a storm last year, Dunham said people who have children in the district and people who don't have been calling to inquire when Ben would be standing again.

The answer is "soon." By the new school year, the sculpture will be a part of the Franklin landscape again.

msanders@semissourian.com

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