Chief Mahaska Statue

Standing in the courthouse square of Oskaloosa is a statue of Mahaska, also called White Cloud, a chief of the Ioway people who lived from about seventeen eighty four to eighteen thirty four. Story holds that after avenging his father's death and leading a raid against the Osage, Mahaska laid down his arms and took up the quieter life of a farmer, remembered as a man of his word. Both the city of Oskaloosa and Mahaska County carry his name.

The statue itself has a remarkable origin. Sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry began it in nineteen oh six while living in Paris, returning to Iowa to study Meskwaki people for his work. His clay model was shown at the Paris Salon in nineteen oh seven.

When the finished bronze was dedicated on May twelfth, nineteen oh nine, a crowd of some twelve thousand people gathered to see it.