After reading in today’s Denver Post about a tree sculpture that allegedly had been vandalized in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, a neighbor reported that the tree had fallen of its own accord and had not been pulled over.
Mary Kay Myers, who lives near where the tree fell during Saturday’s snowstorm, said it toppled around noon as she was driving by. She stopped, as did two other motorists, and attempted to pull the heavy tree from the traffic lane on East 23rd Avenue near Ash Street.
“We couldn’t move it, so a man tied a tow strap around one end of it, and we were able to swing it out of the way of traffic,” she said. “But the strap became pinned under the log, so we left it there.”
The owner of the sculpture, Lou-Elizabeth Lombard, reported that vandals had pulled the 11-year-old sculpture over because she had found a strap wrapped around the head of the sculpture, titled “Angelita de la Noche” or “Angel of the Night.” She said police removed the strap and took it with them as evidence of a crime.
“It’s much better to know that it fell because of an act of God instead of because of vandals,” Lombard said today. “I’m glad she stopped and helped out.”
Myers said the two upreaching wings of the angel had broken off in the fall. She picked them up and moved them to the curb after several cars had clipped them.
The base of the overturned sculpture had rotted so badly that it was powdered, and pieces could be pulled off easily.
Lombard said she hopes to have the rotted base cut off squarely to hard wood so that the sculpture could be mounted on a concrete pad. The wings will be reinstalled with metal pins.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
