Mystery Sculpture Baffling
by Alex Wukman - Telegram Staff Writer
Temple Daily Telegram - 2014-08-07
BELTON - On Monday Bell County Precinct 4 Commissioner John Fisher took an unusual item
to the Bell County Courthouse: a sandstone bas-relief sculpture depicting what appears to
be a triple hanging. Three human figures are dangling by their necks from rope around a
tree branch.
Despite the unusual nature of the sculpture, very little is known about it. What is known
is that the sculpture was found in Fall 2010 on a ranch in Milam County.
“Some hunters found this out by Rockdale and weren’t sure what it was,” Fisher said. “We
don’t know if the hanging happened in Milam County or was something that the sculptor saw
somewhere else.”
The sculpture was in the possession of Mike Beck, the former owner of the ranch, since it
was discovered. He said it sat in his workshop for years until curiosity finally got the
better of him.
“The story behind the stone could be kind of interesting and kind of spooky,” Beck said.
“I don’t really know much about it; we found the stone and sold the ranch the next
summer.
The stone was discovered near an abandoned log cabin and barn in what Beck described as a
“rock garden.”
When Beck purchased the land in 2005, he was told that the cabin and the barn dated back
to “the early 1900s,” but he thinks that it might be older.
“I’m sure the house was redone two or three times,” Beck said. “There was a lot of
history in that house.”
One of the curious aspects about the sculpture is that it was discovered near a home that
still had items inside it, Beck said.
“Whoever lived there didn’t take anything with them when they left,” he said. “There were
dishes and clothes and just everything still there.”
Lucille Estelle, a local Milam County historian, said, “I know a little about the history
of the area and couldn’t find any reference to a triple hanging in Milam County.”
Estelle, who has studied the sculpture, thinks the painstaking attention to detail is
very telling.
“It could represent a triple hanging elsewhere or something someone wanted to happen to
people they didn’t like,” Estelle said. “There’s just so much about it we don’t know. ...
We don’t even know how old it is.”
awukman@tdtnews.com
.
Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
All Credit for this article
goes to Alex Wukman
and the
Temple Daily Telegram
goes to Alex Wukman
and the
Temple Daily Telegram
.