TOPEKA (KSNT) - State officials and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly celebrated the completion of a new plaza at the statehouse grounds Tuesday.
Richard Bergen and his father made a six-foot tall "Ad Astra" statute for placement in a new plaza outside the Kansas capitol building on Oct. 15. It is a replica of the Ad Astra statue made by the pair in 2002 that sits atop the statehouse's copper dome.
"Every day we would go in if we were working on the model we would be caring and shaping and looking at it, and trying to get it just right, and then we made the patterns and the waxes, you know, we had those cast and then I welded it all back together," Richard Bergen said.
The original Ad Astra statue depicts a Kaw or Kansa Native American warrior with a bow and arrow drawn pointing up at the sky, according to the Kansas State Historical Society. It draws inspiration from the state motto of "Ad astra per aspera" or "to the stars through difficulties."
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