ST. CLOUD -- Fourty years ago today (Friday) three rock sculptures known as the "Granite Trio" were built in the downtown area.

People gathered around the "Jewel," "Castle," and "Sentinel" to celebrate it's 40th anniversary, as well as honor the artist that created it Tony Caponi.

Mike Helgeson is with the St. Cloud Downtown Council. He says the sculpture was created to feature the new downtown mall built at that time.

"The whole idea came about in 1972, the thought was to have a feature on the newly added downtown mall at the time."

Helgeson's mother was in charge of the sculpture project and hiring of artist Tony Caponi (Ca-pony) to constructed it.

Caponi, who was from Italy, says there was a secret meaning behind his sculpture.

"The secret was that when my wife died I wanted to prove to myself that I had not loss the capacity to create."

Caponi says that he wanted to have a sculpture that was not only a challenge but would be durable

"I carved granite not because it's easy, but because it resists me, it's tough and wants to stay there."

The Granite Trio sculpture is located outside of Herberger's mall.

 

The Granite Trio rock sculpture celebrates its 40th Anniversary. (Photo: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON News)
The Granite Trio rock sculpture celebrates its 40th Anniversary. (Photo: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON News)
loading...

 

More From AM 1240 WJON