The creation of This Is the Place Monument was essentially 10 years of work and sacrifice condensed into three years.
"We were delayed because of the war," said Spero Anargyros, who was an assistant to head sculptor Mahonri Young, who crafted the monument from 1944 to 1947, near the end and after World War II.Anargyros, 84, speaking Friday at a "This Is the Place Symposium" in This Is the Place Heritage Park, said the monument was a tremendous project and one he's extremely proud of.
Anargyros said sculptors worked seven days a week to complete the monument, which includes more than 70 figures. They completed their work on July 23, 1947, less than a day before its original dedication.
He also believes some parts of the monument weren't sealed properly and had to be refurbished later.
"It cost more to repair than make it," Anargyros said.
The twice-as-large-as-life statues had to be shipped from New York, where the foundry was, by railroad and they had to stand upright. He said that caused for a peculiar sight, these large figures going west. They also had to travel by special routes to avoid certain small tunnels.
Norma S. Davis, another symposium speaker and author of a new biography of Young, said the two men also had to work with a 45-member commission to get approval for various stages of the product. She said Young chipped in at least $11,000 of his own money to complete the work.
Anargyros doubts if Young was ever reimbursed. He said salaries and costs skyrocketed during the war, but the commission rarely adjusted for that.
He said Young was amazing in his detail of the statues and even had him consult a reptile textbook to be sure that a rattlesnake on the monument was precise.
"He was the most fabulous man I've ever known," Anargyros said. "He was always correct."
Anargyros lives in San Bruno, Calif., north of San Francisco. His work on the monument includes the seagull and many joint statues, marked by small "S.A." initials.
He said other assistants never got their initials on works, but Young made sure his was on every statue he helped produce.
Anargyros praised Young for having thought through every step of the fabrication process beforehand.
Davis said Young, a grandson of Brigham Young, commented at the monument's 1947 dedication that it was the greatest day of his life. Young was 69 years old then.
She said besides the problems with transportation, materials and costs during the war, Young also suffered illnesses and lost both his mother and wife to untimely deaths in the three years he worked on the monument.
In addition, he had to deal with petty arguments from descendants of those being portrayed on the monument. For example, Davis said they was a big disagreement whether Erastus Snow should have his shirt buttoned or unbuttoned.
She said Young's dream of working on a special This Is the Place monument started right after he completed the seagull work on Temple Square in 1914.
Davis said "This Is the Right Place" and "Here Is the Place" were alternate titles considered for the monument.
Campbell Gray, director for the Brigham Young University Museum of Fine Arts, where Young has a special 125-piece display currently on show, said This Is the Place is a very peculiar monument because it is not simply a landmark but represents a vision.
"It actually signifies the future," he said. "The vision continues to unfold."