After years of waiting and measured uncertainty, Johnsonville’s statue of Revolutionary War Gen. Francis Marion will likely make its home at a new veteran’s memorial park at Venters Landing in the near future.
While the final monetary allotments are not yet in hand, the city is expecting a $5,000 donation to be made during an event planned at Venters Landing on Aug. 17, which will be declared Florence County History Day by Florence County council.
With the final donation promised, the city will meet its goal of raising $100,000 to purchase the statue, its pedestal and begin construction to place the statue.
Although purchasing and placing the statue has been the goal for nearly three years, it won’t stop there.
As it is, Venters Landing is fully suited to be the home of the statue, but Johnsonville Mayor Steve Dukes said the city wants to make it more than that, as the statue was originally conceived to be a focal point of a veterans park to be placed at the landing and throughout adjacent areas.
“We think that this funding that will allow us to be to build the pedestal and mount the statue,” Dukes said. “We don’t want to build the pedestal and mount the statue at a plain boat landing. That’s going to be the focal point of the while veterans park and who knows what else could come to the park.”
The Aug. 17 event will be a county-wide event, as the Florence County Sheriff’s Office will present the colors to start the event off at 7 p.m., while other members of county government will be in attendance.
The event, at which the final donation of $5,000 is expected to be made by Florence County, is something Dukes has been looking forward to for a long time.
He said he hopes the Friday night happening will be something to inspire other possible donors to help complete the beautification of the park and allow it to be all the city hopes it can be.
“That’s something to encourage and renew the enthusiasm of completing the entire project at the park,” he said. “Hopefully, at this event on Aug. 17, we’ll have the statue there for viewing, because a lot of people still haven’t seen it yet.”
With the key element of the park – the statue – soon to be in place, the city feels they’ve done an admirable job in not only raising the funds, but doing so without donations coming from the city itself.
Dukes said through the help of Florence County, corporate donors and individual donations, the city was able to keep its promise to abstain from using city capital to fund the project.
“The statue is paid for and we didn’t use one dime of the city’s money,” he said. “We got donations and grants from the private and corporate communities to complete paying for the statue. We’re committing to the project to complete the park and enhance it and make it more of a destination.”
While the history of the statue and Venters Landing are of the utmost importance to Dukes, he feels the entire area has the possibility to be more than that.
Betting on a burgeoning interest in history, Dukes said he believes the statue and veterans park can become an attraction for tourists from throughout the area for not only its contemporary veterans memorial, but also for its historical prominence.
“Now that we’ll have the No. 1 destination for Francis Marion tour guides to come and park and pull their busses up at our park and be able to get out and look at the statue and read a story about it… It will just be a No. 1 destination for things like that,” he said.
In the mean time, the statue itself will soon be coming home to Venters Landing.
Dukes said it’s important for the city to go ahead and raise the statue – knowing that it’s something the people of Johnsonville want to see.
“We want to go ahead and get the statue erected. People are anxious to see that,” he said. “Hopefully, at this event on Aug. 17, we’ll have the statue there for viewing, because a lot of people still haven’t seen it yet.”
This story originally appeared on SCNow.com.
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