Staff photo by Fritz Busch Blue Earth artist Ross Pollard installed a plaque honoring Hermann, Chief of the Cherusci Tribe, on the Congressional Rock in Hermann Heights Park Thursday. Pollard donated the plaque he placed on the east side of the rock that commemorates the 106th Congress designating the Hermann Monument as a national symbol recognizing the great contributions by Americans of German heritage in 2000.

NEW ULM — A Blue Earth artist — impressed by the Hermann Monument in Hermann Heights Park — donated and installed a bronze plaque honoring the Cherusci tribe chief.

The plaque is on the east side of the large Congressional Rock near the monument. Hermann was recognized as a symbol of German Americans by the 106th Congress 20 years ago, and the rock commemorates it.

“I’ve been to the monument several times and was always impressed by it, so I worked on the project for about a year,” said Ross Pollard.

New Ulm Park and Recreation Director Tom Schmitz said Pollard asked him if he could design and donate the plaque commemorating Hermann.

Schmitz said the plaque design was approved by the City of New Ulm and the Hermann Monument Society.

“The city is very appreciative of the beautiful piece of custom art work to commemorate Hermann the Cherusci,” Schmitz said.

The plaque reads “Willkommen in Hermann Heights Park. Hermann was the chief of the Cherusci tribe in Northern Germany in 9 A.D. He secretly gathered a great force of allies and by unexpected ruse, destroyed three invading Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest. The decisive victory prevented the Romanization of Germanic peoples. It can be said that Hermann kept Germany German.”

Pollard, who owns Blue Earth Pastels with his father James, makes high-end art materials sold in the United States, England, and Australia.

He recently donated and installed two plaques in Fairmont. One was a tribute to William H. Budd, one of Fairmont’s first settlers. The second was a grasshopper, recognizing the locust plagues that destroyed the area in the 1870s.

Both medallions are mounted on boulders.

Pollard created another historical medallion of Blue Earth native and industrial engineer Donald Deskey, who designed Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

He will soon install a plaque of U.S. Senator Walter Mondale in Elmore.

James Pollard, the dad, helped install the Hermann plaque.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.