Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The US Navy wants its Wisconsin badger statue back

- Todd Richmond Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter: https://twitter.com/trichmond1

MADISON - The Wisconsin badger statue that has served as a literal touchstone for so many Capitol building visitors that they’ve rubbed the finish off his nose could be headed to another den soon.

Navy officials want the statue they loaned to the state more than 30 years ago back. But state historians aren’t letting it go without a fight.

The badger is synonymous with Wisconsin. It was selected as the state’s official animal because lead miners in the state’s early days were said to burrow into the ground like badgers. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s athletic teams are known as the Badgers, the school’s mascot is a sassy badger named Bucky and an image of a badger adorns the state flag (although he looks more like a short-tailed beaver than a badger to the untrained eye).

Replicas of badgers can be found throughout the state Capitol. But the Badger and Shield statue holds a special place of honor outside the governor’s office.

The statue was crafted around 1899 from melted-down cannons taken from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, according to online travel guide Atlas Obscura. It was affixed to the USS Wisconsin battleship before World War I.

It spent more than 60 years in a U.S. Naval Academy garden before the academy museum loaned it to Wisconsin in 1988 for a state historical society exhibition that coincided with the recommissi­oning of the second USS Wisconsin, which was built in Philadelph­ia. After the exhibition ended, the statue was put outside the governor’s Capitol office in 1989. It has stood there ever since.

The building has been closed to the public for nearly a year because of the coronaviru­s pandemic, but the statue has been a highlight of tours in recent years, with throngs of adults and children rubbing its nose for good luck. So many people have touched the nose that its bright brassy gleam stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the statue.

State Department of Administra­tion officials said the naval academy’s museum contacted them last March about returning the statue so that it could be displayed at the Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is now an exhibit. The Nauticus Museum is run by a nonprofit, not the Navy. Messages left at the museum weren’t returned.

The naval academy museum extended the loan through mid-September due to COVID-19-related closures. Christian Overland, the head of the Wisconsin Historical Society, wrote a letter to Claude Berube, the naval academy museum’s director, in October asking for a two-year extension on the loan.

Overland said the pandemic has driven up shipping costs and that the society uses the statue to help tell Wisconsin children about the state’s shipmaking history and its role in Great Lakes commerce.

“The children on the tours become very engaged and excited to learn more about the history of the ship industry in our state and in their communitie­s,” Overland wrote. “It would be wonderful to continue telling and sharing stories of the U.S.S. Wisconsin and waterway history of our great state as we keep moving forward.”

State Department of Administra­tion spokeswoma­n Molly Vidal said that as of Monday, the state hadn’t heard back from the museum about extending the loan.

Berube said in a phone interview Thursday that he never received the letter, but that the museum has to take back the statue. He noted that the original loan was for five years and has been repeatedly extended to more than 30 years.

Berube said permanent loans no longer exist in the museum industry, and though he understand­s how Wisconsin feels, it’s now another organizati­on’s turn to benefit from displaying the badger. He also noted that the academy museum had to return former President Jimmy Carter’s plebe uniform to his museum in 2019.

“Loans are done in good faith,” he said. “I think it’s great that children have been able to see this badger while it was on loan. Now we’re trying to accommodat­e another facility that has also requested it. There will be a lot of children in the Norfolk area who will be able to enjoy it as well.”

 ?? TODD RICHMOND, ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? A Badger and Shield statue is seen outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison last week. On loan for more than 30 years, the U.S. Naval Academy wants the State of Wisconsin to return the statue. The Navy wants to include it in an exhibit featuring the USS Wisconsin battleship in Norfolk, Va. State historians are fighting to keep the statue in the state for another two years.
TODD RICHMOND, ASSOCIATED PRESS A Badger and Shield statue is seen outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison last week. On loan for more than 30 years, the U.S. Naval Academy wants the State of Wisconsin to return the statue. The Navy wants to include it in an exhibit featuring the USS Wisconsin battleship in Norfolk, Va. State historians are fighting to keep the statue in the state for another two years.

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