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The Eco-Earth Globe in Riverfront Park on Nov. 10, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Tiles have broken off. Moss is growing in the cracks. Pieces of continents are missing.
One of the signature features of Riverfront Park for the past 18 years is falling apart.
The Salem Parks Foundation has a $300,000 fundraising goal to help restore the Eco Earth globe to its former glory.
Carol Snyder, president of the Salem Parks Foundation, said the mosaic earth is now front and center with the newly completed Gerry Frank | Salem Rotary Amphitheater and the addition of the Peter Courtney Minto Island walking bridge years ago.
But once people get up close, “It’s kind of an embarrassment and it was once glorious, and it could be glorious again.”
The parks foundation’s mission is to raise community funding for improvements to Salem parks to augment what the city can do.
The artwork was the result of a solution to a problem. When the Boise Cascade Mill shuttered, it left behind a 26-foot spherical steel industrial storage tank that held an acidic solution for breaking down wood chips into pulp.
The so-called acid ball became a community art project that started in 1999 and was completed in 2003.
Volunteers worked an estimated 30,000 hours to turn the ball into a globe.
There are 86,000 tiles that make up continents, islands and oceans.
Mary Heintzman served as art director, helping guide professional and student artists while they created 200 tiles that depicted cultural icons like wildlife or architecture.
Heintzman, a teacher at Blanchet Catholic School, said artists who were interested would contact her by word of mouth.
More than 125 students from local public and private schools also helped create portions of the Eco Earth by sculpting, firing and painting clay pieces.
For example, North Salem High School students created the Viking ship.
The Eco-Earth Globe in Riverfront Park on Nov. 10, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Now for the restoration, she’s tasked with finding the original artists so they can repair their tiles if they’ve broken.
The artist who created Victoria Falls in Africa has remade her tile and will be painting it soon, Heintzman said.
Snyder said most of the tiles need cleaning up, but some have been broken and need to be made whole again.
“They fall off periodically and they get stored. Some can be reused, some cannot,” she said.
She said the Eco Earth has been neglected, with no funds set aside for maintenance.
Snyder said the restoration work won’t be a community effort this time around. A restoration firm will repair and replace the tiles and put a permanent coating over the earth to better protect it.
Synder was there when the Eco Earth was unveiled nearly 20 years ago during the World Beat Festival.
A crane took the plastic off it while the song “It’s a Wonderful World” played. Synder said a document given to the city said the “Eco earth is meant to be a symbol for global awareness, world peace and cultural diversity.”
Synder said the foundation expects it to take two years to restore the globe, with the first year spent trying to fundraise and eventually get a grant for the work.
“Hopefully it will be paid more attention to this next time around,” she said.
The Eco-Earth Globe in Riverfront Park on Nov. 10, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Contact reporter Saphara Harrell at 503-549-6250, [email protected]
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Meet the Editor: Les Zaitz is nationally-acclaimed journalist with nearly five decades of experience, including more than 25 years as a reporter and editor at The Oregonian.