Brushing up on history: Volunteers clean Spiva Park miner statue

Sep. 20—Volunteers have been busy recently trying to clean away decades of hard-water stains, algae and plain dirt from the symbol of Joplin's mining heritage — the miner statue in Spiva Park.

Chris Ferguson, president of Historic Murphysburg Inc., and Paula Callihan, treasurer of the organization and a member of the Joplin Historical Society, have been leading the effort on the marble figure that was unveiled when Spiva Park was dedicated July 7, 1966.

Ferguson uses D2, a biological cleaner he said is safe for use on rock or marble statues and markers. He said that "it eats the moss and dirt, and the live material that's in the pores of the stone. People forget that stone is porous and over time, it gets caked down in there."

He has used the cleaner many times to restore headstones and statues in cemeteries. People should not use other types of cleaners, including those that are acidic, because they can damage the stone, he said.

"Some people will do power-washing, and that is bad for the stone," he said. "It can damage it by pushing the dirt farther in the pores, so we just use a pump sprayer and then soap it down with D2 and give it a good scrub. We'll do that a couple of times and rinse it off. We'll just keep doing that over and over, and it will get cleaner and cleaner."

He is retired from a foreman job with Mount Hope Cemetery, where there are numerous statues and stone mausoleums in addition to headstones of all kinds that he restored to like-new or almost-new condition over the years.

Callihan said the cleaner is used at many landmarks, including Arlington Cemetery and the White House.

After the top half of the statue was spritzed with a 50/50 mix of the cleaner and water and then scrubbed a few minutes later with a soft brush and rinsed, a yellow and gray coating of grime gave way to a white surface revealing the light gray veins in the marble. After a few applications, the D2 can be applied at full strength if more cleaning is needed, Ferguson said.

The statue is mounted on a park fountain feature, and years of Joplin's mineral-rich water splashing on its legs left the bottom half harder to clean than the top. Ferguson said it may take several more cleaning sessions to dissolve away the darkened stains left by the fountain.

Ferguson and Callihan, who are cousins, recently cleaned an obelisk that had been erected in Fairview Cemetery by their family decades ago "and we scrubbed it and cleaned it, and it's snow white," he said.

"It keeps whitening over time," Callihan added.

They have taught classes in the past at Mount Hope Cemetery on cleaning monuments and they were asked to clean the miner. They volunteered to clean the statue when a restoration effort of the park began about a year ago, with the permission of the Spiva family and city's parks department, because of their experience.

"Wow, it's working," said Spiva relative Scott Cragin, who arrived to watch the cleaning effort. "Thanks for doing this," he told Ferguson and Callihan.

Cragin's grandfather, George A. Spiva, bought the property at Fourth and Main streets, had the park constructed and gave it to the city of Joplin in 1966.

He was a businessman, philanthropist and arts supporter. He gifted the park in honor of his father, George N. Spiva, the founder of an explosives company during the Joplin region's mining era, which generated much wealth and business opportunities in what became the Tri-State Mining District.

The Spiva descendants, working with Linda Teeter and the Joplin Arts District, the Joplin Historical Society and the Joplin History & Mineral Museum as well as the city, began an effort early last year to repair and refresh the park.

Callihan said Raymon Sharp, a descendant of an early Joplin mining family, served as the model for the miner depicted in a hat with carbide light, known as a sunshine lamp, and overalls with pick and shovel at hand.

Miners of the lead and zinc era also are featured on the seal of the city of Joplin and were a popular symbol during the 1973 celebration of Joplin's centennial. A replica of the statue distributed as a liquor decanter was one of the popular mementos sold during the centennial observance.