The Victory Eagle is a bronze sculpture designed to honor the veterans and casualties of World War I. Although the artist is not known, noted ornithologists Thomas Roberts and Otto Widmann consulted on its development. The statue depicts an eagle with its wings spread protectively over two young eaglets in a nest, symbolizing the United States' protection of its citizens. Although they were originally mounted on stone bases, all have since been moved from their original locations.
Produced in the early 1920s, the monuments were meant to mark each county line along the Victory Highway, U.S. 40, as it crossed the United States. In the original design, two eagles would mark each crossing—one on each side of the road—to form a chain of monuments from coast to coast. At the terminals in San Francisco and New York, huge groups of eagles would be mounted on bases along with bronze statues of a soldier, a sailor, and a Red Cross nurse. However, the statues had to be paid for through private funding, and the plan eventually fell apart when the Great Depression began. Only six monuments were ever installed.
H.G. Van Neste donated a site for the Douglas County marker on his farmland north of Mud Creek Bridge. But over time Highway 40 was no longer a major route; the Douglas County marker was ignored and eventually vandalized and the plaque stolen.
In 1980 state highway police found the eagle toppled in the mud. Tom Swearingen, director of exhibits for Dyche Museum, by chance came upon a patrol truck towing the sculpture away and requested it for the museum. The state claimed it and gave it to KU. The Victory Eagle was rededicated in the spring of 1982 outside the main entrance of Dyche Hall. A 1990 plaque gives its history. Unfortunately the artist who sculpted the Eagle and the foundry where it was cast are not known.
The Memorial Drive reconstruction project provided an opportunity for the Victory Eagle to be relocated there and take its rightful place among the other KU war memorials. The university rededicated the World War I commemorative statue and it was moved to a new location on the east side of Memorial Drive in April 2019. The move linked the Victory Eagle with the university’s other war memorials, including David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, the Kansas Memorial Union, the World War II Memorial Carillon and Campanile, the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.
To claim credit for this Virtual Cache, you must visit the Victory Eagle and answer this question. Email the answer to the cache owner, jayhawk-eyedoc. Those posts not answering the question will be deleted.
Question: There are two quotes located on the benches surrounding the Victory Eagle. Email the names of the two authors of the quotes to the cache owner, jayhawk-eyedoc.
For extra credit post a selfie by the Victory Eagle.
For Extra-Extra credit tell us who O.M.E.G. is.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.