Another highlight was seeing Frederic Remington’s c1908 heroic bronze statue titled “Cowboy”, of a cowboy on a horse on the edge of a cliff. It’s the only outdoor public work Remington ever produced. I remembered reading how Remington had insisted on it’s location, which added meaning to seeing it in person. By the way, Remington played “rusher” on the 1879 Yale football team, and I have an 1879 Harvard vs. Yale football program which he’s listed in, along with Walter Camp, the father of American football.

I knew the “Cowboy” statue was in Fairmont Park, somewhere in the strip next to the river. I must have spent half an hour driving around looking for it. In desperation I ended up driving deeper into the park away from the river. Finally I found a park maintenance worker who tried to explain where it was. He ended up leading me to it in his city maintenance truck full of tree trimmings. Now that’s the City of Brotherly Love! Turned out it was on the opposite side of Kelly Drive from the strip, facing the river. Essentially you’re suppose to view it from across Kelly Drive; a distance of about 30 feet. Being a bronze statue aficionado, no way would that suffice. I dodged traffic, made it across, and climbed the embankment to where it was. Unavoidably I ravaged the flower bed that surrounds it while soiling my spotless white brand new K-Swiss. As is typical viewing outdoor sculpture, it was interesting to see the foundry marks, and the nuances of their work, but after that it’s kind of anti-climatic. It’s not like you get to take it home or anything, you look at it and it stays there; collectors like to take stuff home! The whole drawn out arduous history of the statue’s commission, from conception to casting to erection is detailed in Harold and Peggy Samuels' 1982 book “A Biography: Frederic Remington“.