Photo by Walt Atwood
Good things come in small packages, right?
That might be what St. Louis native Gary Esolen thought in 2006, when, as a tourism consultant, he was hired to perform a study on how to improve tourism in Warren County, Pennsylvania. When he learned that Warren had an historic connection to St. Louis and its Gateway Arch, he recommended in his report that a smaller replica of the landmark be erected in front of the Warren County Visitors Bureau.
More than a decade later, that dream is now a reality.
Thanks to the Committee of Retired Boilermakers, the Baby Arch is now in place in Warren as a way to recognize the 280 crew members of the town's Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co. who helped fabricate the steel from 1962–1965 for the wedge-like segments that would be used to build the Arch in St. Louis.
"It's a big part of people's lives here," says Edwin Atwood, a member of the committee. "I probably knew 50 of the people personally that worked on [the Arch]. That's pretty telling for a little community."
Atwood and his son, Walt, who's chairman of the committee, helped raise funds for the Baby Arch, which was made possible by private donations and countless hours of volunteer work. Eighty-year-old Donald Chambers, who worked on the original Arch, dedicated much of his time to sanding and polishing the Baby Arch, which is made from 750 pounds of stainless steel (fabricated by Dave's Welding in Waterford, Pennsylvania).
In November of 2012, Chambers was one of 11 retired boilermakers from the PDM-Warren crew who were bused to St. Louis to be recognized for their work on the Arch. Some of the former crew members had never seen the completed landmark until then.
"This is an important part of our history as well as your history," Atwood says.
The Baby Arch will have a dedication ceremony in Warren this Friday, June 30.
