Southeast Wyoming will be without a popular monument for part of the summer.

The Lincoln Head Monument, located at the Summit Rest Area and Visitor Center on Interstate 80 between Laramie and Cheyenne, will be refurbished at a foundry in Lander. The project, which will cost the Wyoming Department of Transportation about $29,000, will take about six weeks to complete.

Pat Persson, District One Engineer with WYDOT, says the monument will stay up through the 125th Wyoming Statehood Celebration, and the project will begin in July.

Persson says the monument has not been refurbished in over 20 years, and the project comes at the request of the sculptor's family.

“The last time this was refurbished was about 1990, and over a period and course of time eventually the patina turns black,” says Perrson. “I was contacted by one of the Russin family members who asked if I would look at it.”

Persson says the Lincoln Head Monument is one of several pieces of public art maintained by WYDOT.

“As stewards of certain public art, and this is a very prominent piece, we have some obligation to keep it in good condition,” says Persson.

He says it is unfortunate that the monument will be gone for six weeks, but it is necessary to keep in maintained.

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