Kossuth on State

Statue of Lajos Kossuth

Before sculptor Wayne Thompson began his preliminary work on the statue of Lajos Kossuth he obtained information and studied the life of Lajos Kossuth. Mr. Thompson found that Kossuth was known not only for his military efforts to free his native country of Hungary, but he was also known for his personal magnetism and courage and his unparalleled oratorical skills. As official guest of our government in 1851—1852, Kossuth was the first non-American in our nation’s history after the Marquis de Lafayette to have the honor of addressing the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

It was because of Kossuth’s great oratorical skills that Mr. Thompson chose to depict Kossuth as if he may have looked addressing a crowd gathered to hear him speak while he was in the United States.

Mr. Thompson made all of his own molds and cast the bronze in his own foundry at his farm near Swea City. There are twenty– nine individual castings that have been joined together to make the statue which stands six and one-half feet tall and weighs about 800 pounds.

The Black Granite base upon which Kossuth stands is four feet in height and is made from two pieces of solid granite weighing approximately 8000 pounds. The Black Granite was imported from India arriving at the port of entry in Anaheim, California. From there it was trucked to the Black Hills region of South Dakota where the granite was cut and polished. It was then transported to Ankeny, Iowa for the engraving and then brought to Algona, completing a trip of thousands of miles and several months time.

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