NEW ULM – Three local companies have collaborated to craft a 12-foot-high, stainless steel eagle for District 88’s new high school.

DLC Manufacturing and Fabrication, Booth Welding and Fabrication and Schwartz Design Services each took part in making the sculpture. The eagle is perched with spread wings on a globe with NU at the center for New Ulm.

It was displayed as part of the New Ulm Homecoming Parade on Friday before being taken to its permanent home at the high school

“It took a lot of artful craft work, not just simple welding,” said co-owner of Booth Welding and Manufacturing Troy Booth. “It was an art project.”

The project started after Brent Donner, of DLC, made a smaller eagle. The idea was given to him to make a larger scale eagle and he approached the other two companies about it – they agreed it was a cool idea, according to Booth.

Schwartz Design laid out the design work for the project, adding a lot of detail to the statue, such as the talons and face. DLC cut out the pieces with its high powered lasers and Booth Welding put it together.

The sculpture weighs about 1,200 pounds. It took roughly 250 hours of work, just to weld it.

Booth notes that the 32 feathers took a fair amount work.

“Each feather of the wings has three feet of welding,” Booth said.

That comes out to 96 feet of welding by the end, just for the wings. At the time of writing, the total cost had not been calculated but Booth estimates it at around $40,000.

The eagle will be displayed at the outdoor commons area behind the high school.