Indian gets a facelift
by Terry Toole

Voith Erzsi from Budapest, Hungary, Sculptor Peter Wolf Toth and supporter and friend, Charles Bevis at Georgia's Indian sculpture in Colquitt.

Back in the early 1970s, a young man pulled into Colquitt on his van with a question about a large red oak tree standing on the corner of College and Milford streets, just off of U.S. Highway 27. The tree was on the property then owned by the Colquitt Lions Club. The 25-year-old Hungarian sculptor, Peter Toth, was about to start his fourth carving of a giant Indian statue in Colquitt for the state of Georgia. His life ambition was to carve an Indian statue in every state of the U.S.A. He had already sculpted his first in California, Ohio, and Florida. He was in Colquitt, Georgia, to start his fourth, and it was snowing, which was about as rare as Indian statues being carved. That red oak was still in the ground when Peter braved the cold and snow to give Georgia his first Indian sculpture. That one lasted for several years, but just before it was finished, it was discovered that the center of the great tree was rotten. Much work was done to save it, and it was moved in front of the Colquitt Cemetery on U.S. Highway 27 but was finally taken down in disrepair.

The artist called Charles Bevis one day from Canada. He stated that he had a log that could be shipped to his home in Florida, along with another giant tree, to make another sculpture for Colquitt and Georgia. The giant tree was $10,000.00. The freight would be $5,000.00, but that would be free if it was shipped with the other giant tree.

In short, that is the Indian statue that now stands in almost the same spot as the original artwork stood. The first one was finished in 1978.

Last week, Charles Bevis came by the officeto tell us that Peter Wolf Toth was back in Colquitt, and he was going to sand and finish Colquitt's Indian carved in the giant tree and treat it with a very special wood preservative that would make the statue last for many, many years. It is located in front of the Colquitt/Miller County Chamber of Commerce just off of U.S. Highway 27.

This very special person, Sculptor Peter Wolf Toth, has not only made his Trail of Whispering Giants in all of the 50 states and Canada, he has gone back and attempted to help keep the statues (20-40 feet tall) in good repair.

This humanitarian artist has done all of this free for his work. He did it to honor all Native Americans.

I'm not positive, but I believe that he stated that he has carved 71 of the giant Indian statues on this continent and in Hawaii.

He is now making plans to return to his native Hungary to share some of this self-taught art of a master sculptor where he was born and had to fleefrom in 1956. Peter's early personal experiences behind the Iron Curtain gave him a deep sense of kinship with the Native Americans.

He is an American citizen and believes that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world.

Colquitt people, Georgia's citizens and the people of these United States should thank this great sculptor for his gifts of the statues to a proud race of Native Americans.