The Boy with the Leaking Boot

This Boy with the Leaking Boot, one of an estimated twenty-four such statues in the world, was thought to have been purchased in 1895 as part of an improvement project for Stevens Point's Public Square. The design may have originated in Italy, Germany, France, or Belgium in the middle to late 1800's, but its exact origin and creator are unknown. Fifteen of the original castings still stand throughout the world, including ten in the United States, while nine others in the U.S. are no longer displayed because of damage or theft. Around 1910, a horse-drawn wagon struck the watering trough on which the figure stood, breaking off his boot and lower legs and leaving him discarded in a nearby slough. Within a year, two local firefighters rescued and repaired him, gave him an iron snake to hold, and placed him on his knees in a flower bed outside the old north side fire station, where he remained holding various objects until 1967, when he was moved into storage in the basement of the newly built fire station. In July 1975, after an effort by Stevens Point firefighters and several local people, he was installed in a new setting with fresh paint, concrete lower legs, a pedestal, and a pool, again holding a leaking boot. Early on October 15, 1988, vandals pushed him from his pedestal into the pool, decapitating him and tearing a three-inch-wide hole in his chest. A restoration fund drive raised $1,300, and machinist John Becker of Milladore, Wisconsin, with help from a metallurgist and using photographs of similar statues, restored the figure to its original condition, recreating details lost over nearly a century and recasting the lower legs and leaking boot. After 400 hours of work by Becker and his employees, he was returned on June 30, 1989, to his place in front of the fire station.

Stevens Point, Wisconsin · United States