Kansas City Scout (statue)

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The Kansas City Scout statue is a famous icon in Kansas City, Missouri. The statue is more than 10 feet tall, and depicts a Sioux indian on a horseback pointing East returning from a hunting trip. There is an almost identical statue in Kansas City's first sister, Seville, Spain pointing to the direction of Kansas City. (The two statues point towards each other). The Scout was conceived in 1915 by Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944) for the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where it won a gold medal. On its way back east, the statue was exhibited on a temporary basis in Penn Valley Park. The statue was so well received that $15,000 was raised in nickels and dimes through a campaign called The Kids of Kansas City. The statue was dedicated in 1922 as a permanent memorial to local Indian tribes. It is currently located in Penn Valley Park, which is just south of the Liberty Memorial in downtown Kansas City. Several area attractions have been named after the iconic statue, most notably, Kansas City Scout, which is the Kansas City Metroplitan Area's electronic traffic alert system. Kansas City's short-lived NHL team was named the Kansas City Scouts, after the statue.