Jacquie Phelan's Weblog

	A likeness of the Egyptian god Horus stands sentinel in a remote location on the slopes of Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais ( photo P. Pasquini).

An Egyptian-style statue tucked into the dense forest of coastal scrub, chaparral, poison oak, bush monkey flower, and various species of grasses and forbs and of course the villianous Scotch broom on a slope of  Mount Tamalpais has authorities scratching their heads.

The four foot tall, 300 lb concrete work of art depicting ancient Egypt’s sky-god Horus faces due west and gazes directly at the 2,475-foot mountain’s peak.

A brush-clearing crew from the Mill Valley Fire Department stumbled onto it in August, and even now, city officials are mystified as to the statue’s origin.

The Mill Valley Police Department contacted celebrated artist Phil Pasquini (head of City College of S.F. Sculpture Dept) for assistance.

The artist checked museums both locally and beyond, but was told all of the Egyptian exhibits were intact.

As a veteran of  the occasional Stash-it-On-The- Mountain-Under-Cover -Of -Darkness adventures, I want to know if they (or she) had to use the “Egyptian technique” (rolling a thousand-pound thing on wooden dowels, this is how Charlie moved his multi-ton machine tools into the shop all by himself), and maybe who dunnit!

Mill Valley officials are asking “why”?

I say: “why the heck NOT?”

It’s in a remote location inaccessible by automobile. It’s beautiful.

And if the artist had tried to go thru the “proper channels”, there would never be a statue there.

Not in a million years.

The era of big rock work on Tam is over. There’s the famed ampitheatre and the Fire Lookout. Don’t forget the missing twenty vertical feet of the East Peak (scraped away by Army Corps of Engineers/idiots who wanted to discourage peak baggers). On a much smaller scale, there’s the music stand (it’s on the maps) and now this cool falcon god……who knows WHAT ELSE is up there?

I have met women in their nineties who told me of living up at the Potrero Meadow (Dept. of Redundancy Department, sorry) during the Depression. They claimed that up there in the tent-city, life was a blast.
I can imagine that the statue was erected around then…possibly even cast in place!

Now none of our reader riders would harm this elegant long-kept (Rosicrucian?) secret, so it is up to you to explore Mt. Tam on your own, off-trail of course. Leave the mystery be. And watch out for the ticks.

~ by jacquiephelan on November 14, 2008.

Posted in "Mt. Tamalpais", Cycling, Night, Ride
Tags: "Mt. Tamalpais", "Phil Pasquini", "statue of Horus", horus, must-see, sculpture