A Bantam welcome
There are several places throughout Pennsylvania that can be recognized not by geography or architecture, but by art. Hershey has chocolate roads, Punxsutawney has a groundhog statue and Mars has a UFO.
Jeff Geibel, president of the Butler AM Rotary Club and a board member of Butler Downtown, said Butler could also have a mascot art piece welcoming people to the birthplace of the Jeep.
“We had the first Jeep built anywhere in the world. That's something that we're proud of,” Geibel said. “We have the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival that brings people to the city every year, but where is the Bantam?”
The Butler AM Rotary Club has spearheaded a project to place a metal Bantam Jeep in Butler, which would be an interactive art piece. The organization has commissioned Bill Secunda, a metal and steel artist from Summit Township, to create the piece, with a goal for it to be completed by 2024’s Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival in June.
Secunda said he is modeling his piece on the original Bantam prototype that was presented to the U.S. government for military testing. Although the prototype was destroyed in testing, Secunda said he is working with people who have had models created, so he can sculpt an accurate original Bantam.
“There is a gentleman in Texas that had one built off an actual model. Pretty much based off a Bantam, so we know the sizes of things on the Bantam,” Secunda said. “We have a couple people in the Jeep club, they come around and point me in the right direction. It's a delicate dance.”
Geibel said the Rotary Club has contracted Secunda to have the piece finished by April 15. The price tag for the piece and its creation is about $100,000, and Geibel said the club has raised about half of the funds necessary to pay for it, but is still accepting donations from people, businesses and organizations.
“We are very near half our fundraising goal already,” Geibel said. “We are requiring him to finish his work by April 15, because we want time to install this on Main Street by the heritage festival next June.”
Over the years, Secunda has created numerous statues out of steel plate, stainless steel, copper, bronze and carpenter's nails. Most of them are insects and animals, but there are also three 20-foot-tall tin men that can be found around the world, according to Secunda.
While the Bantam Jeep will be his first vehicle art piece, Secunda said he is up for the challenge and hopes to create something worthy of tourist photos.
“This is the first automotive that I have ever done,” Secunda said. “It still is going to be a sculpture, but it will be realistic and something people can take their picture with.”
Geibel said the Rotary Club has not yet chosen a location for the Bantam Jeep model, but the group aims to place it somewhere on Main Street.
