The Rainy Lake Mermaid
A sculpture made by a young man during a Great Depression summer to escape chores
Fort Frances is a community located near the American border in northwestern Ontario. Well-known for its fishing, it also has a famous sculpture that has stood for nearly 100 years.
The story of that sculpture relates to a cousin visiting family during a summer in The Great Depression.
Many places will put up statues of mermaids on lakes or on the oceanic coasts, but Fort Frances is unique in its mermaid. That sculpture was created not by professionals, but by a young man looking to avoid chores at the cabin, which the Lysne family owned since 1905.
It was in 1932 that Gordon Schlichting, a Minneapolis architect student, was visiting his cousins in Canada. Of course, at the time they all had chores to do and Schlichting was not a fan of those chores.
In an article in the Fort Frances Times, Kurt Lysne, stated that his cousin Gordon, quote:
“Decided to do something better than hauling wood and water.”
Schlichting created the mermaid out of pieces of steel, boat propellers and concrete, making it 1.5 times life size. He built a mold of wood and tin and poured the mixture of concrete into it. He then worked with a hammer and chisel for five weeks to make the statue. At that point he secured it with anchor bolts and reinforcing rods.
His son Rollie, stated in 1997, quote:
“Dad had to use a chisel to make sure the mermaid curved where she was supposed to curve.”
Of course, as the decades went on, myths would develop regarding the mermaid. One fisherman’s tale said that the sculpture was erected in memory of a drowned girl by the man who had seen her boat sink in Rainy Lake. Another story said that a world-renowned sculpture made the mermaid while out on vacation, but at least that one is half true.
Another story says a French sculptor made the statue to honour his daughter who drowned in the lake.
Schlichting went on to become a highly renowned architect in the United States, and especially Minnesota, and he often came back to see the mermaid creation, which has now outlasted him after his death in 1997 at the age of 83.