Not much is known about a long-gone downtown Trail statue called “The Thumb” - such as who commissioned it and who created it.
The piece once stood where the Family Statue Park is now located across from the Trail Memorial Centre. Larry Abenante, the city’s retired public works manager, recalled the piece was taken to the landfill in 1996 because it was cracked, or damaged in some way.
The only other mention found is in “100 Years of Trail History: A Century of Trail’s Top News Stories,” which is a magazine the Trail Daily Times produced in December 2000.
Above a black and white photo on Page 65 is a brief caption written by retired Times reporter Lana Rodlie.
“Below is ‘The Thumb,’ although some townspeople called it ‘the finger.’ It was the statue that stood at the end of the Victoria Street Bridge. The official story is - it was removed because it was cracked. The unofficial story is - it was removed because it was offensive.”
The recollection of this statue came up following a Times story about another city sculpture that was headed to the landfill once the snow thawed.
For 11 years, a Picasso-inspired statue was largely forgotten after it was removed from the Esplanade in 2007.
Badly in need of refurbishment, if someone didn’t step up to reclaim it, the city indicated the metal sculpture would be removed from the Glenmerry works yard by mid-May.
Following a March 8 Times story, “Last call for Trail’s Picasso-inspired artwork; Statue headed for scrapyard if no takers,” several people have called the municipality and expressed an interest in the piece.
Due to the increased exposure the Trail and District Arts Council is also involved, so the piece remains in the public works yard for the time being.