On the side of a state road, beside an unassuming industrial building, one suddenly encounters a small Statue of Liberty atop a steel base. A plaque with little detailed information besides the name and artist greets visitors approaching from the parking lot. “Liberty Enlightening the World” is the full name of the real Statue of Liberty, unveiled in New York in 1886, created by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
As it turns out, this particular statue is a reproduction of the original model created by the artist during the development of the piece. After languishing in a museum for over a century, it was laser-scanned and a new, limited set of twelve castings were created in 2011. While the whereabouts of all of them are unknown, this is definitely the only one available for public viewing in Cass County, Michigan.
