Press Enterprise. | March 24, 2016 | by Mark Muckenfuss
Boosters of Desert Christ Park are Scrambling to save dozens of crumbling biblical statues.
Concrete statues of Jesus, his disciples and other biblical figures have been standing in a Yucca Valley park for 60 years. But the desert’s sun, wind, rain and occasional vandals have not been kind to the largerthanlife sculptures created by Frank Antone Martin.
The little children whom Jesus suffered to come unto him are suffering from a lack of legs. Their weathered bodies are perched atop spindles of rebar that Martin used as the foundation for his pieces. All that remains of Lazarus, the man Jesus brought back from the dead, is a ragged pedestal.
“It’s sad that the park is disappearing and nobody seems to care,” said Angela Leggett, 70, a local resident and secretary of the Desert Christ Park Foundation.
It’s not exactly true that no one cares. Leggett does. So does Roxanne Miller, president of the foundation. The two women are leading a campaign to raise funds to repair and restore the park’s statues. They figure they need $100,000 to do the job right. Since November, they have raised $200.
“The churches aren’t very interested either,” Leggett said.
“They’re starting to be,” Miller countered.
The two women are among those who believe that Martin’s work is worth preserving as part of Yucca Valley’s identity.
“It’s well-known to people all over the world,” Miller said. “It’s a piece of the past I think needs to be preserved and carried forward into the future.” Miller, 54, first recalls coming to Christ Park when she was about 4. Her grandparents lived in Yucca Valley and her grandmother would walk with her along the dirt paths of the 2½ acre plot in the rocky hills west of Highway 62, and tell her the stories that went with the scenes depicted above this small desert town. …read FULL ARTICLE
