Grand Rapids, Michigan (+42.9595, -85.66)
Foster Park is a small triangle of grass located southeast of the downtown area of Grand Rapids. There are no playgrounds or picnic tables. But this park does include one historically significant thing: a copy of a statue named “The Hiker,” sculpted by Theo Alice Ruffles Kitson. This statue was dedicated in 1928, and commemorates the Spanish War of 1898-1902. The base’s plaque mentions Cuba, Porto Rico, and Philippine Islands. When I took history back in the 1960’s, we learned about the Battle of Manila Bay and how that pretty much ended the war in the Philippines. However, the natives in the Philippines kept fighting the United States for years.
The original of the statue is located at the University of Minnesota ROTC building in Minneapolis. There were at least 50 copies made.
References for further study: The Hiker (Kitson)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hiker_(Kitson)
“How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr
