Tribe takes over monuments on I-5

LONGVIEW – The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has taken ownership of the towering steel and wooden monuments located along Interstate 5 outside of Toledo, Wash., after the 2010 death of their creator, quirky Seattle millionaire Dominic Gospodor.

“Knowing Dominic as we did, we feel he would agree: who better could hold and preserve the land for its historical and cultural uses than those who were the original holders of the land. We were honored to work with the native peoples of America that Dominic honored with one of his monument statues,” the executor of Gospodor’s will and a longtime friend, Audrey Schefers, wrote in an email to the Chronicle.

The trio of statues and a giant weather vane sit atop 100-foot-tall steel pillars to memorialize American Indians, Holocaust victims and Mother Teresa.

Philip Harju, vice chairman and tribal attorney for the Cowlitz, said the tribe accepted ownership of the latticed spires late last year when Schefers offered them the deed.

“The property is supposed to be maintained for its historical and cultural uses,” Harju said. “That’ll be up to the tribe to interpret.”

Gospodor, often criticized for spending upward of $1 million on his tributes instead of donating the money to charity, ended up leaving the majority of his estate to the homeless, hungry and poor.

A lifelong bachelor, Gospodor wanted a nonprofit to take over maintenance of his golden statues and tubular structures, which once stopped traffic and bewildered passers-by. But he left no money to do so.

Harju said the tribe may have to repair some of the wood that is deteriorating on the nearly 10-year-old carved statues of Jesus, Mother Teresa and Chief Seattle.

Gospodor made his millions mostly in opportune real estate dealings.