Nearly 100-year-old statue at Sacramento’s Land Park decapitated. Police investigating
Police are investigating after a nearly 100-year-old statue at William Land Park in Sacramento was decapitated earlier this week.
A vandal or vandals apparently removed the head from a historic memorial to Charles Swanston, residents first reported Monday in social media posts. Swanston was an early Sacramento settler, cattleman and meat-packing magnate.
The damaged statue head rested on the ground near the memorial Tuesday morning.
Detectives are investigating the statue vandalism, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Chad Lewis said Tuesday, but no suspect information has been released.
Swanston, who arrived in California from Ohio in 1865, founded meat-packing firm Swanston & Son in the 1880s with his son George Swanston, according to Preservation Sacramento, a nonprofit organization dedicated to city history. Charles Swanston died in 1911, at age 101.
The Swanston family ranch was located on part of the land upon which William Land Park would eventually be built, according to a history brochure for the park.
George Swanston, who was involved in the sale of that land, donated $10,000 in the early 1920s for a memorial fountain to his father at the park, the construction of which began in 1922. The fountain, which is located near the Sacramento Zoo, was completed in 1926.
The Swanston statue includes the inscription: “To the pioneers.” A carving below the inscription shows two cattle, facing opposite directions.
Protesters on July 4, 2020, tore down a statue to missionary Junípero Serra located at the California Capitol grounds in Sacramento.
State lawmakers and local tribal leaders shared plans this year to replace the Serra statue with a monument dedicated to local Native American tribes.
This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 11:46 AM.
