A Cronkite News Service Weekend Special

TOWN FOUNDER’S HISTORY CLOUDS EFFORT TO HONOR HIM WITH STATUE

NOTE: This story moved Wednesday, Oct. 14. We recommend it for weekend use.

Photos: 1 | 2 (thumbnails, captions below)

By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Cronkite News Service

BULLHEAD CITY _ Historians say William Harrison Hardy’s entrepreneurial acumen turned a bleak patch of northwestern Arizona into Hardyville, a thriving river port on the site of present-day Bullhead City.

But historians also note that Hardy bragged about killing American Indians, and that has people here struggling over a proposal to honor him with a bronze bust or statue.

A bust of Hardy was to have graced a developer’s new subdivision, but that plan was dropped when the project was sold. The sculptor, Lou Hunt, then proposed that the city purchase and display the work, which has yet to be completed, but some residents objected because of Hardy’s background and others objected to the cost.

In August, the Bullhead City Council declined to approve the deal, which would cost between $6,000 and $60,000 depending on the size of the statue or bust, and kicked the issue back to the Municipal Arts Commission for further study of the cost and possible locations.

The controversy surprised Hunt, who has created statues of the founders of Lake Havasu City and Laughlin, Nev., which are displayed prominently in those Colorado River communities.

“I don’t understand it at all,” Hunt said. “There are statues the world over of white men, black men, Native Americans who have lived through history and killed other people.”

But Olivia Moya Krok, a Bullhead City resident who traces her ancestry to the Gabrieleno-Tongva tribe east of Los Angeles, said American Indian children in the area learn through oral histories that Hardy was a “bad man.” She urged council members to kill the proposal.

“It’s very offensive,” Krok said. “This man basically betrayed them. He wanted their land and then killed them because he was greedy and selfish.”

Hardy founded a community here in the mid-1860s, but Hardyville burned and was abandoned in 1872. Bullhead City later sprouted in its ruins.

Despite his genteel reputation among the white settlers, there is no disputing that Hardy hated and killed American Indians, said Harold Reed, a local historian who has written a brief record of the region during the mid-1800s.

Hardy once wrote that if an “Apache,” as he referred to Indians of all tribes, came to a house on a dark and stormy night, “you are much safer…if you knock him down, kick him out or put him under the shed with your dog than to feed or give him a bed by the fire.”

According to Hardy’s diary, he once left a package of poisoned sugar and biscuits in the desert so that Indians would find and eat them, Reed said. Seventeen dead bodies were later found nearby, Reed said.

At the August council meeting, Vice Mayor John Anderson made a motion to kill the project, according to the minutes. He gave no explanation, and his motion failed.

Anderson didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The city’s Municipal Arts Commission will look at potential locations and costs for commissioning and locating a bust or statue, but there is no timeline for completing that work. Council members will vote when the research is complete, said Steve Johnson, a spokesman for Bullhead City.

One possible location is a vacant lot in a remote area near the historic Hardyville road to Prescott where the city plans to build a government complex, Johnson said.

Another proposal would place it in a cemetery preserved at the old Hardyville site in northern Bullhead City.

Janie Tinnon, an arts commission member, said a Hardy bust or statue would bring art to a city that desperately needs more.

“You can’t go around picking and choosing out of history what you want to say happened,” Tinnon said. “It either happened or it didn’t happen.”

Hunt, who lives in Lake Havasu City, said she has already spent several months creating a clay mold of Hardy’s head. If no one wants a statue or bust, she said she’ll eventually destroy the mold.

“It should be constructed,” Hunt said. “It is a piece of art that represents someone who helped to settle within this area.”

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CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-STATUE DISPUTE: A clay model of William Harrison Hardy, who founded a community called Hardyville on the site of present-day Bullhead City, is shown at the Lake Havasu City home of sculptor Lou Hunt. Hunt designed the model for a bust that was to adorn a new subdivision, but that deal fell through. She has proposed that Bullhead City buy a bust or statue of Hardy, but that effort remains uncertain, in part, because of concerns because of Hardy’s documented disdain for American Indians and his killing of Indians. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-STATUE DISPUTE: Sculptor Lou Hunt stands with a clay model she created of William Harrison Hardy, who founded a community called Hardyville on the site of present-day Bullhead City. Hunt designed the model for a bust that was to adorn a new subdivision, but that deal fell through. She has proposed that Bullhead City buy a bust or statue of Hardy, but that effort remains uncertain, in part, because of concerns because of Hardy’s documented disdain for American Indians and his killing of Indians. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)