Los Angeles Times Magazine features “Sculptor of the North” by Doug Petersen
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The Los Angeles Times Calendar published the September 24, 2023 issue, in which a few of ARP’s publications are featured. The book by Doug Petersen was one of the books featured in the issue. The said publication is a 14-page Sunday issue that presents different ideas, people, events, and others.
“Sculptor of the North” by Doug Petersen is a published book that is available on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and many other online bookstores.
The book presents a story of hope and determination. He didn’t give up on his life, despite how hard it was and how chaotic it could be. He may have had one of the most difficult lives after his house burned down, and he needs to start over again. After so many years of living homeless in the woods, he was able to achieve his dream, and he became a sculptor.
It was the summer of 1973, and the Vietnam War was casting an insidious shadow over the world. Caught in a riot that began as an anti-war protest, he found himself running for his life from club-swinging cops and being teargassed by pepper-fogging guns at the University of Minnesota. The protest was a result of American airplanes bombing neighboring Cambodia. It was soon after the deadly shootings at Kent State University, where four students were gunned down. Many students gathered at Coffman Memorial Union to watch television monitors broadcasting that day’s protest-turned-riot.
It was announced that the Minnesota National Guard had been called in. “Oh, oh, here we go again. Were they going to open fire on us too?” He was a senior at the university and had been accepted at the University of San Diego Law School. That day’s events changed his life. No way was he going to be a part of a money-crazed system as a lawyer, so he began his journey as an artist or sculptor.
Five years later, he found himself living in a tent in the woods near Ely. After two years of tent life, he moved to an old hunting shack filled with spiders, mice, and snakes on the property he bought. It was a roof over his head. After seven laborious years of remodeling with popular logs that he fitted into a log hut around the shack, the structure burned to the ground during the blue moon on New Year’s Eve 1990. It was minus 40 degrees. He sat in the firetruck with then-chief Klun after racing to his nearest neighbor’s house, logger Buster Nicholson, where he burst through his door, yelling, “My house is on fire!”
“Use the phone!” he hollered, and he did. The Ely Fire Department met him at the beginning of Mud Creek Road, and he escorted them six miles down the road and into his remote haven in the woods. It was too late. The fire was consuming everything. Glass and ammunition were exploding, and the hoses on the truck were frozen. It was a night to remember for sure, but if anything was going to get the motivational juices flowing, it was that.
He created a monumental sculpture 31 years later of this resolute and powerful Viking, which is now the second-tallest cement statue in the state. It was a year-long project that stood nine feet tall and weighed about 3,500 pounds. Located in the tower behind the football field, he stands with his sword rammed into the ground, looking skyward for a sign from the heavens, just like he did in 1973 and on New Year’s Eve during the blue moon.
Author Doug Peterson went through ups and downs in life. He lives in Richfield, Minnesota, a southern suburb of Minneapolis.
His childhood was peaceful, as he spent it playing baseball and the piano until he reached the rebellious age of a teenager, when he started drag racing. His police record was not bad, as it just contained speeding tickets and a rioting incident.
He graduated in 1969 and started living on his own. It was during his university years when the Vietnam War broke out, and he stated in a brief narrative how he was able to survive after being caught in a riot at an anti-war protest.