Town’s On Fire To Search Out Its Missing Dragon

When otherwise rational people start hollering about the alien abduction of a statue, you have to suspect something’s up.

Something other than a UFO.

Like, for instance, a fund-raiser.

The vanished work certainly cried for attention. St. George and the Dragon once sat proudly at the intersection of Hill Street and Bunker Avenue. A guaranteed tourist-stopper, it was the first piece that junk sculptor David Dose ever sold.

But when the Pik ‘n’ Shovel Restaurant closed, the dragon was saddled with a For Sale sign. Deposited unceremoniously on a small plot behind Hoffman’s Shoes, it sat rusting for almost two years.

Then the Central Business Association took action.

“We just knew someone would buy it and it would be gone forever. But it’s part of the town’s identity,” says Joan Block, a member of the group’s Save the Dragon Committee.

Dose sculptures are now scattered across town - a wildcat, a skier, a gold panner, a moose. Dose uses everything from hubcaps to ironing boards. Visitors can pick up a brochure and follow the sculptures’ trail.

Some art lovers are taking the playful pieces seriously. Dose was recently interviewed by the Idaho Commission on the Arts and by a Boise TV station. A new work has been commissioned by the University of Idaho. Dose was featured Friday on NBC’s “America’s Talking.”

“Michael Fee called up and said, I have 18 million viewers and I think most of them would like to hear your ideas on art,” recalls Dose, a teacher at Kellogg Middle School. Then he grins. “Not bad for a Valley boy.”

Thresa Pouttu is another Save the Dragon member. She describes the effort as sound business sense.

“David is getting known all over,” she said.

Borrowing the money from Project Uplift, the business group purchased the statue. Pouttu said it will take about $3,000 to repay the loan and restore the statue and install it on Main Street.

Before work on the dilapidated dragon could begin, down swooped the aliens. Pouttu says the business group has just received a ransom note. For - what a coincidence! - $3,000.

The committee wants to get everyone involved in the rescue. A poster contest for kids has been launched. (Call the Kellogg Chamber of Commerce for details.) A telethon will take place on Sept. 15. Donations to a Save the Dragon fund are now being accepted at Kellogg’s First Security Bank.

Machine scenes

It seems sort of backward.

This weekend, forward-looking Kellogg hosts a gathering of Edsel owners and their classic cars, while heritage-proud Wallace serves as backdrop for the first Shoshone County Motherlode Motorcycle Rally.

Still, everybody’s happy.

“Those Edsel owners are the neatest people,” exclaims Kiffanie Momerak of Kellogg’s Super 8 Motel, where many events of the Can-Am Labor Day Meet will be staged.

Listed in some dictionaries as a synonym for loser, Edsels do seem to attract owners with a sense of humor and a weakness for ugly ducklings.

Momerak said some members of the Edsel Owners Club members passed through Kellogg earlier and fell in love with it, resulting in this weekend’s meet.

The best time for formal Edsel viewing is Sunday morning between 9 and noon at the Super 8, where car judging will take place. But Edsels will be tooling across the Valley all weekend, with a side-trip to Wallace scheduled this afternoon, and a gathering at the Enaville Resort planned for Sunday.

The motorcycles should be equally visible.

“We’ll have a show-and-shine from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Around dusk on Saturday, everyone will drive up and down the street with nice neon strobes,” says Rudy Cook, who organized the event with her husband C.B.