GREENE COUNTY, Ga. — Just months after the iconic Iron Horse was returned to its home in Greene County after months of restoration, it has now been toppled by severe storms.
The line of storms that moved through early Sunday morning had wind gusts of 60-70 mph at times.
A viewer sent in several photos of the statue that shows the statue blown off its base and lying on its side on the ground.
The viewer said the storms were responsible for toppling it.
It doesn’t appear to be damaged other than falling over. The statue is 12 feet tall and weighs about 2 tons.
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The statue had just been brought back to its home along Highway 15 in Greene County in November “following extensive renovations carried out over the summer and fall,” carried out by the University of Georgia.
The statue was removed in May to be restored “after years of exposure to the elements.”
The statue is synonymous with UGA from its beginning. The Iron Horse was originally created in 1954 by a visiting artist-in-residence named Abbott Pattison, and it is made up of welded pieces of boilerplate steel.
Despite being a bit of a tourist attraction, the Iron Horse was originally met with derision from students when it was installed on campus.
“The university allowed L.C. Curtis of UGA’s Horticulture Department to move the statue to his farm in Greene County, about 25 miles south of Athens. The Curtis family later sold their property to the university, and it is now home to the Iron Horse Plant Sciences Farm,” UGA said.
Patty Curtis and her daughter, Alice Hugel, have now gifted the sculpture and the land it sits on to the university this past year.
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