This article ran in 1963 in the News Tribune. The face carving have remained in Eatonville since it was discovered, but no one every determined who carved the face or when.
At the 2013 Eatonville Garden Tour, people can see it first hand and make guesses at to where it could have came from.
A Visage of Mystery Rises From the Earth
by Joseph C. Larin (News Tribune Staff Correspondent)
What is this stone face that was plowed up by farmer Sam Fendal near Fredericksen and now rests in the front yard of Mrs. Dick (June) Carney of Route 1, Box 91, Eatonville.
The face is two feet by two feet and is carved from hard pumice that weighs 80 pounds when dry and 100 pounds when soaking wet. No similar stone is found in this area according to local rock hounds, although something resembling it is found at Mount St. Helens, but hat is a long way away.
It must be very old, as chisel marks are eroded away. Certainly the features are not those of American Indian. As much as anything else it resembles an Easter Island carving. But what would an Easter Island carving be doing buried in a farmer’s field at Fredericksen? If an adventurous or shipwrecked Easter-Islander of along ago was cast ashore on the mainland with his 100-pound carving, it is doubtful if he would have carried it with him inland. And if he had carved it after landing in the Puget Sound area it is unlikely he would have reached Mount St. Helens to obtain the stone and still more unlikely he would have carried it from Mount St. Helens to Fredericksen. Besides, mariners are agreed it would be impossible to sail from Easter Island to Puget Sound in an Easter Island craft of long ago.
At any rate, the artist who created it put into it some of that magic quality that causes people to go back again and again to see the great work of art. The nose is straight and aristocratic, although damaged by time; the eyes are strange and direct, and the mouth and lips show sensitivity. It is hard to tell if the fringe surrounding the face is a hairdo or just a frame for the face. Time has blurred it.
And while we know who painted the enigmatic Mona Lisa and who she was, Mrs. Carneys’ stone far is a mystery that may never be solved.
Article courtesy of Terry Van Eaton.
Click on image to enlarge.
Eatonville To Rainier 