Someone tried to steal a century-old bronze bust from Wright Park—but the unsuccessful theft led Parks Tacoma employees to something that had been hidden since 1913.
Workers discovered in May that someone had nearly cut the Henrik Ibsen bust from its base. Parks Tacoma removed the monument on May 27 and placed it in secure storage while officials determine how to repair and reinstall it.
Inside the hollow statue, Parks employee Claire Keller-Scholz found badly deteriorated pages from a Norwegian-language newspaper. Following preservation practices, she took the wet pages home and stored them in her freezer—beside some leftover soup—until she could examine them properly.
After carefully cleaning and unfolding the pages, Keller-Scholz identified them as the May 2, 1913, edition of the Tacoma Tidende. The front page included a photograph of the Ibsen bust, which Tacoma’s Norwegian community dedicated just two weeks later. An Indian Head penny and what appears to be a Norwegian coin were also tucked inside.
Parks Tacoma hopes to return the repaired monument to Wright Park next year.
Read Peter Talbot’s complete story—and see photographs of the newspaper and coins—at The News Tribune.
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