Clearlake Oaks >> When Judy Barnes’ husband returned from his morning walk and informed his wife that a long-standing statue of a lion — which weighs 200 pounds, at least — was missing from Fountain Park in Clearlake Oaks, she was understandably upset.
As a resident of the small town since 1980, Barnes has seen Clearlake Oaks experience its fair share of ups and downs. She remembers when the community was thriving, when businesses crowded the streets. But things haven’t been quite so rosy lately. “There’s a lot of vandalism, a lot of places downtown that don’t look so nice,” Barnes said. “As a person that lives here, I would like to see our community get reactive again, see people take pride in things.”
The missing statue is one of four lions placed in Fountain Park by the Lake County Lions Club back in 1962. While the club has long since disbanded, for years members of the Clearlake Oaks/Glenhaven Business Association, including Barnes and her husband, took the park’s maintenance into their own hands. They were involved in landscaping renovations, during which they moved the lion statues and placed them on cement slabs. Barnes knows just how heavy they are. She watched as multiple men were needed to lift and relocate them.
She doesn’t have any inking as to who took the lion, or why, but Barnes suspects it happened late, and at least two people were needed to pull off the heist. Fountain Park isn’t lit up at night, making a robbery that much easier to get away with.
“I think they would have had to think about it for a while and have some kind of truck,” she said. “I don’t know why and I can’t visualize how you could do it without getting caught. And what are you doing with a 300 pound lion anyway?”
Missing statues are something of a phenomenon around the county. They disappear from public land, private property, churches, grave sites. No place is off limits. Where the statues end up isn’t entirely clear. While people approach the Main Street Gallery for appraisal on questionable work from time to time, such as paintings and the like, stolen statues don’t seem to come through their doors.
As to why Fountain Park doesn’t have working lights, Barnes isn’t entirely sure about that either. The County Parks Department took over maintenance from the business association, but Barnes claims her husband looked into the electricity. He believes it’s still running to the park. It seems the light bulbs are simply burnt out.
Barnes made a call to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, but there isn’t much law enforcement can do about the stolen lion. The only thing to do is sit and wait. Barnes is holding onto hope that someone knows something. “I just think they’re really beautiful there,” she said of the lions. “They have a lot of detail on them. You just don’t see statues with that much detail on them. I think they’re part of the history to the community, that’s what they mean to me.”
Anyone with any information on the missing lion statue should contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. “If anybody knows anything about those lions I think it would be great if we could get them back,” Barnes said. “It looks kind of sad when you go by that park and you see this hole where there used to be this lion.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
