Weather-Worn Statue Removed From Pedestal : 40-Year Vigil Ends for Cabrillo

The weather-worn statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, which has graced the tip of Point Loma at Cabrillo National Monument for almost 40 years, was removed Tuesday in the first step toward its replacement with a more durable replica.

A crane was used to lift the deteriorating statue of the 16th-Century explorer, which measures 14 feet high and weighs 7,000 pounds. The sandstone statue, a gift to the people of California by the Portuguese government in 1931, has been a Point Loma landmark since 1949. Before its placement at the monument, it stood at the Naval Recruit Depot on the San Diego Bay side of Point Loma.

Replica Nears Completion

A copy of the statue is nearing completion in Portugal by noted Portuguese sculptor Joao Charters de Almeida e Silva. Former Cabrillo Monument Supt. Doris Omundsen commissioned the new statue in 1985 after San Diegan Marion Reupsch donated $100,000 for the project in memory of her late husband Carl Reupsch, who had been planning director for the San Diego Unified Port District.

The new statue of the first European to enter San Diego Bay is expected to be completed in Portugal by mid-January, Gary Cummins, Cabrillo superintendent, said Tuesday. Cummins said the Portuguese government’s naval attache in Washington indicated by telephone Tuesday that the Portuguese Navy will probably transport the statue to San Diego on a three-week voyage as a special recognition of Cabrillo’s place in local history.

“We would plan on having considerable fanfare to mark placement of the new statue,” Cummins said.

The old statue is being placed inside a weatherproofed, reinforced container by Scott Atthowe, a statue and fine arts specialist from Oakland. Atthowe will also oversee the crating of sculptor Almeida’s work in Portugal and its placement on a new, large pedestal at the monument by March, Cummins said.

Original plans called for display of the old statue inside the monument’s museum, but that idea was put on hold after engineers determined that the museum’s concrete floors would not support the combined weight of the statue and the machinery required to move it. In the meantime, the statue will be preserved for possible future display.