Photo courtesy of John Sterner Sculptor John Sterner built a mesh framework for a veterans memorial sculpture planned for Cottonwood’s Veterans Park. The finished sculpture, which will be shaped like a flying eagle, is being cast in bronze, and will be supported by a steel arc. When the sun is in the right position, people will be able to see it shining through a circular hole in the center of the eagle sculpture, Sterner said.

COTTONWOOD — It started with an idea to honor area veterans, Steve Alm said. Members of the Cottonwood American Legion post reached out to artist John Sterner about creating a memorial sculpture for Cottonwood’s Veterans Park.

Now the sculpture, shaped like a flying eagle, is coming together at a foundry in Stillwater, Sterner said.

“Right now, they’ve got all the parts cast,” Sterner said. There’s still a lot of assembly and cleanup work to do, but Sterner said the goal was to have the sculpture ready for next summer’s Coming Home Days in Cottonwood.

Alm said American Legion members in Cottonwood had been discussing the possibility of adding a memorial sculpture to Veterans Park.

“I asked the guys if maybe we should pursue something,” Alm said. In the years after 9/11, more communities have built patriotic sculptures and veterans memorials, Alm said. “They’re really creative, and a lot of them are just amazing.”

Legion members supported the idea, and decided to approach Sterner. Sterner has created sculptures including the Mrs. Whitney statue near East College Drive in Marshall, and the mustang at the entrance to the Southwest Minnesota State University campus.

Alm said they talked about design ideas, and visited Veterans Park, located along Cottonwood’s Main Street.

“It’s amazing how he’ll look at it,” Alm said of visiting the site with Sterner.

Alm said Sterner brought a lot of good perspective on how a memorial would fit on the site, and how it might look.

Sterner said he and Legion members talked about ideas that would symbolize veterans, and how they would resonate with people. Sterner said he also thought about soldiers’ stories he read in a book about Medal of Honor recipients.

Sunrises were an important image and idea for those soldiers, he said. For example, U.S. service members would refer to the number of days left in their tour of duty, “and a wake up.” Some soldiers’ accounts also talked about being able to see a sunrise and know they had lived to see another day.

“To me, that was really striking,” Sterner said. That idea came together with the American symbol of the bald eagle.

“It’s an eagle rising up into the sun, with the sun inside it,” Sterner said, describing the sculpture design. The silhouette of the flying eagle is abstract, with open shapes like sun rays and a circle inside it.

Sterner said one special part of the design is that when the sun is in the right position, people will be able to see it shining through the circle in the center of the sculpture.

The eagle sculpture is being cast in bronze, Sterner said. It will be supported by a steel arc about 10 feet tall, on a concrete base. The arc will also have the symbols of the different branches of the U.S. military on it, he said.

Sterner said he worked on the sculpture project while still teaching at Lakeview School and Southwest Minnesota State University.

“I did a lot of work over the summer,” he said. But he was still glad to be part of the memorial project. “I’m blessed to have the opportunity, that they wanted to come to me,” he said. Sterner said he was “a firm believer” in honoring veterans.

Alm said the Cottonwood Legion post is in the process of raising funds for the sculpture project. The first phase of the sculpture project, which includes casting, would cost about $76,500, Alm said. The second phase would cost another $10,000.

The Legion have distributed fliers to local businesses, and also plan to apply for grant funding through the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, he said.

Sterner said the process of casting the sculpture takes about a year. First, molds of the sculpture had to be made for casting. After casting, the sculpture would need to be assembled and cleaned up. The steel arc and sculpture base would also need to be built.

“We’d like to dedicate it at Coming Home Days 2025,” Alm said of the memorial. Sterner said he hoped that the sun would shine through the sculpture on the day of the festival.