In light of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's recent demise, I thought you might like to read about the afternoon he spent in Golden in 2003. You might also be interested to learn that he has a permanent presence in Golden....
The July 22, 1982 Golden Transcript featured this photo of Ben Nighthorse (above). They were promoting a show at the Denver Museum of Natural History (now the Denver Museum of Nature and Science) called “Indian Images ’82: The Tribes of the Plains.” The Museum planned demonstrations by “Native American craftspeople [who] make flutes, do ledger drawings, carve pipes, make drums and war bonnets…beadworking and jewelry-making.”
The Golden Transcript didn’t usually promote events in Denver, so perhaps by way of excusing the exotic, far-away location, they added this: (Editor’s note: Two hundred sixteen Golden residents are members of the Denver Museum of Natural History.)
Ben Nighthorse himself came to Golden twenty-one years later, when the Golden Civic Foundation commissioned Nighthorse on the Mesa–the bronze sculpture at the intersection of South Golden and Johnson Roads. Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s face was used as the basis for that piece. By that time, he had served in the U.S. Congress for six years and in the senate for ten years.
The statue’s unveiling didn’t work out quite as anticipated. The Civic Foundation had made arrangements for Senator Nighthorse Campbell and other dignitaries to be at the site of the statue’s new home on a certain day, at a certain time. When the day arrived, the artist said the piece wasn’t quite finished. The Foundation asked him to bring it to the ceremony anyway. The dignitaries waited a couple of hours in the Taco Bell parking lot, but eventually the artist arrived, with his not-quite-finished bronze on a flatbed trailer.
The unveiling took place, speeches were made, hands were shaken, then the artist drove the piece back to his studio in Wyoming. A few weeks later, the piece was installed in the roundabout at Johnson and South Golden Roads.
Originally, the statue was landscaped with a waterfall, but that proved difficult to maintain, so the site has gone xeric. The Boy Scouts and Kiwanis Club surround the Senator Campbell with U.S. flags on holidays.
