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The Birth of Our Madonna the Storied History Behind the Local Landmark

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The Birth of Our Madonna the Storied History Behind the Local Landmark INLANDMAGAZINE | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2011 LIVING The birth of our Madonna The storied history behind the local landmark ALSO Modernism in the IE Micro cars you’ll adore Avoiding dangers of common drugs Greg Armstrong, ride director from the editor INLAND LIVING VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 A well-traveled woman Fred H. Hamilton PUBLISHER & CEO Don Sproul and still-fresh ideas MANAGING EDITOR JJ Jones ADONNA is a woman who Day in 1930. For this issue, we decided V.P. SALES & MARKETING gets around, or who has gotten it was time to track down that photo, part Lynda E. Bailey around depending on how you of which is on pages 14 and 15 (the larger SALES DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR M Shawna Federoff look at it. Not the religiously famous image is on our Facebook page), and tell RESEARCH DIRECTOR Madonna or the aging pop star, but the our Madonna’s story. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS & EDITORS Madonna of the Trail, or as I like to call No matter where you live in our Inland Allan Borgen, Luanne J. Hunt her, our Madonna. Valley, you can call her your Madonna too Steve Ohnersorgen, Jerry Rice, Carla Sanders Her story tumbles through the lives because she was placed here as a tribute Suzanne Sproul, Caroline Woon of a German immigrant in St. Louis, a to the women who had the courage to face Rick Sforza county judge adversity and to tame both the West and PHOTO EDITOR from Missouri, her often-unruly sons and daughters. PHOTOGRAPHERS Thomas R. Cordova, Khai Le ladies of the That’s our Southern California, our Frank Perez, Lea Reed ÿþR — both history. And if you’re here today, it’s your of today and history too. Brad Gardner, Mary Hollenbaugh Jack Storrusten decades ago — Also in this issue, we explore another SALES MANAGERS and even snagged part of the past with Palm Springs’ Jeannie Adair a toehold, if celebration of Modernism, an art, SALES & DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST reports are true, architecture and design style that was ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES aboard the USS marked by clean lines, sharp angles Richard Aguayo, Curt Annett, Linda Baker Harry S. Truman, and an integration of interior and Cheryl Clarke, Jack Galloway Chris Lancaster, Jennifer Lucas, Maria Mendoza PHOTO BY GABRIEL LUIS ACOSTA a Nimitz-class, exterior spaces. Christa Morin, Cindy Olson, Bernadette Palos nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, with a We also learned from Cal Poly’s Bruce Krissy Rogers, Snezana Tomasevic photo stationed in the captain’s quarters. Lee Emerton that Pomona, too, has a rich John Valdivia, Adil Zaher And believe it or not, the Madonna has heritage in the design movement. SALES ASSISTANTS sisters — 11 that we know of — scattered And we discovered small, no make that Lynette Burton, Felicia Caldera across the nation, marking points in our micro, cars in our own backyard. These Victoria Vidana nation’s history. fuel-efficient, low-maintenance gems are ADVERTISING GRAPHIC DESIGN The great grandson of the sculptor says something to behold, even if they were Christie Robinson, lead designer/ production coordinator he doesn’t know what happened to the built 30 to 50 years ago. Pat Walton, designer original which was probably made of clay Let’s take stock: honoring family and MARKETING over some support structure. She was courage, beautiful, clean modern design, Veronica Nair, Ginnie Stevens likely destroyed in the making of the gas-miser small cars, all from years ago. mold for the statute we see today at the As one of my historian friends might Inland Custom Publishing Group corner of Foothill Boulevard and Euclid say, “Who’d’ve thunk it?” People had good Frank Pine Avenue in Upland. ideas long before we came along. EXECUTIVE EDITOR & G.M. She is made of algonite — a cement like We hope you enjoy reading this issue Kathryn Johnson V.P. OF FINANCE mixture comprised of crushed marble and of Inland Living Magazine as much as we John Wartinger granite, perhaps even including lead ore. did putting it together. Our best to you. V.P. OF OPERATIONS A few years ago, Carla Sanders and Joe Robidoux I both enjoyed seeing a panoramic photo Don Sproul V.P. OF CIRCULATION of the statue surrounded by a gathering of CONTACT US [email protected] Editorial: 909-386-3899; fax 909-885-8741 colorful looking folks taken on Admission 909-386-3899 or [email protected] Advertising: 909-386-3936; fax 909-884-2536 or [email protected] To subscribe to Inland Living Magazine call 909-386-3923 INLAND LIVING MAGAZINE or visit www.inlandlivingmagazine.com P.O. Box 9400, San Bernardino, CA 92427-9400, is produced by the Inland Custom Publishing Group of The Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Single copy price: $3.95. Subscriptions $14.95 per year for 10 issues. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 9400, San Bernardino, CA 92427-9400. Copyright 2011 Inland Living Magazine. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. Inland Living Magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or A PUBLICATION artwork even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. PRINTED BY SOUTHWEST OFFSET PRINTING 6 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | february-march 2011 cover story | our history O Pioneers! 14 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | february-march 2011 Residents mark California Admission Day in 1930 at the Madonna of the Trail statue. The entire photo may be found at the Upland City Library. Upland’s Madonna OR MORE THAN 80 YEARS, the Madonna of the Trail monument in Upland has stood watch, a symbol of a courageous pioneering of the Trail is one spirit that helped settle America. She gazes southward under her worn bonnet, cradling a baby in her left arm while gripping a rifle of 12 from California barrel with her right. Her young son holds tightly to a clutch of to Maryland Fher apron. The inscription on one side explains that, along this route in 1826, a man named Jedediah Smith and 16 trappers, searching for a westward By CARLA SANDERS flowing river, became the first Americans to enter California by land. february-march 2011 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | 15 Written in stone The inscriptions on each of the four sides of the statue’s base: FRONT Madonna of the Trail N.S.D.A.R. Memorial That seems remarkable in itself — the place to the Pioneer Mother in history of this busy intersection at Foothill of the Covered Wagon Days Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. But what’s little (N.S.D.A.R. refers to National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution) known is that this statue, this larger-than-life woman, is replicated 11 other times across the BACK The National Old Trails Road United States. A newer commemorative plaque from the The statues were the culmination of years California Society of the DAR has been placed of work by the National Society of the below these words. Daughters of the American Revolution, aided WEST by a man who would one day be president of Over this trail, Jedediah Smith, seeking the United States. a river flowing westward, led a band of sixteen trappers, The story begins in St. Louis in the early the first Americans 1900s, when a group of women there, members to enter California by land. of the National Society of the Daughters of the EAST American Revolution, decided that the pioneer This trail, trod by the padres migration route from east to west — the old in Spanish days, Santa Fe Trail — should somehow be became, under Mexican rule, recognized. Also engaged in the project was the the road connecting San Bernardino National Old Trails Association, formed in and Los Angeles, 1912 with Judge Harry Truman, of later the American post road. Independence, Mo., as its president. Initially, small cast-iron markers were At left, one of sculptor August Leimbach’s original sketches proposed to designate the route. In 1924, IMAGE COURTESY KEVIN KARL however, that plan was changed and the www.kevinkarlstudio.com DAR agreed on 12 large monuments. Three years later, August Leimbach, a German immigrant who was living in St. Louis at the time, was chosen as the sculptor for the mammoth piece of public art, which rises 18 feet above the ground and which he called “The Madonna of the Trail.” In the summer 1928 issue of The Federal Illustrator Magazine, Leimbach described his work: “The idea I had, when I modeled the design was this: The pioneer mother with her children was waiting for the father at their blockhouse in the wild West, for the father did not come home as he had promised. She, believing him to be in danger, put her little child in a blanket, grasped the gun and with the boy ran out in the field to look for the father. “The gun is sketched from the gun of Daniel Boone, with his carvings on the shaft. On the ground is prairie grass and cactus brushes, also arrowheads, and on one side in the “When I came to America, I often saw these people of the shadows, there is visible in the original, a rattlesnake, partly pioneer type, strong and brave and always ready to protect covered by grass. themselves against any danger. Asked to make a sketch model “When I was a schoolboy in the old country, the American for a monument of a woman of pioneer days, I was inspired history of the pioneer days made a deep impression on me. by my own impression of these people I had met, and the I thought often of those who had left the old home and all Madonna of the Trail is the result.” that was dear to them and had come to this country to find a From Maryland to California, the Madonna of the Trail field for their ambition.
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