Shutter to Think: Melding a Memorial

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Mark Stach hammers out the bends and wrinkles in a twisted piece of metal plucked from the bottom of the Rock River Sunday, March 19. With the help of Dixon shop owner Brian Cheshire, Stach has been straightening out the metal as an historical art project. (Alex T. Paschal - apaschal@shawmedia.com/credit)

This past summer I shared the tale of local artist and activist Mark Stach as he fished for history or “fishtory” if you don’t mind me making up a word.

To recap, Stach has been using a magnet to fish below the Galena Avenue Bridge in Dixon and pulling up bits of metal that he believed at the time was part of an infamous bridge collapse that took place in 1873. The collapse happened during a baptism, claiming the lives of 46, mostly women and children.

[ Dixon man fishes for history in the Rock River ]

(Tom Wadsworth’s Founder’s Day presentation April 11 will be on the subject of the bridge collapse, in fact.).

Upon further analysis, what Stach was pulling up didn’t fit the metal type used on the bridge. It was definitely old, just not the right stuff.

But Stach is not one to be deterred from a mission. So he continued forward with his idea to use the metal to craft a cross as a memorial for the victims.

He got to work.

Stach started bending the steel rods through sheer force and pressure. And there he hit another snag: the metal was cracking, popping and breaking. Through friends and colleagues, he learned the metal needed to be heated and pounded flat.

And what luck! It just so happens there’s a large contingency of blacksmithing enthusiasts who meet once a month at a local shop who have the know-how and equipment to help Mark continue his project.

Divine intervention? Or a really cool coincidence? The help was appreciated, in any event.

There’s nobody who can be as excited about this project as Mark, himself.

But I’m pretty jazzed to continue to follow him as he brings this project home.

• Follow Alex T. Paschal on Instagram @svmphotogs or message him at apaschal@shawmedia.com.