Here’s a few of my SAW curiosities. A TR bobble head, a Span Am War veterans cemetery memorial, a neat NRA sculpture and a haversack that actually has a provenance to a Capt W.E Horton A.Q.M. If you believe his name on the back of the haversack is legit. Wouldn’t know why it wouldn’t be. I added a mess kit and dinnerware for it.

That "hiker" gets around. Here he is at the bohemian national cemetary on the northwest side of chicago. The statue is 8'5" tall and weighs 1600 pounds. He stands on a wassau red granite boulder. It was dedicated in 1926.

For $14,500 you can have your very own 28.5" tall Newman statue, while supplies last.

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And here is "The Skirmisher" in Binghamton, NY with his Trapdoor. Another SAW memorial.

An explanation for two SAW statues called "The Hiker":

THE STATUE IS CALLED THE HIKER. THERE ARE TWO STYLES AND BOTH INSTALLED IN NUMEROUS LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. BOTH STATUES ARE DEDICATED TO THE U.S. SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. THESE VETERANS CALLED THEMSELVES HIKERS, IN THE SAME WAY THE WORLD WAR I VETS WERE CALLED DOUGHBOYS AND WORLD WAR II VETS WERE CALLED G.I. JOES.

Here is another SAW statue memorial in Milwaukee, WI. He is also holding a Krag rifle.

The "Gawker" looks like he could certainly stare a person down. He's got his bayonet, canteen and knapsack.

I am not sure about "The Hiker" theory, I found it on one website and will need to find further evidence to collaborate it.

butlersrangers wrote on Jan 7^th, 2020 at 11:20pm:


You DO know that they call it the "Big (nickname for Richard)"!  BTW, it's one of the oldest water towers in Michigan!

Albany, New York, has a handsome 1928 statue, (also called "The Hiker"), by a local sculptor, transplanted Scottish Artist, David Cunningham Lithgow.

I read part of a 2014 dissertation, by Sarah Denver Beetham, written as part of her Doctorate of Philosophy in Art History, University of Delaware. ("Sculpting the Citizen Soldier: Reproduction and National Memory 1865-1917".

Ms. Beetham noted the name "Hiker" was not the name initially applied to the works of Newman and Kitson, (nor did the term appear to be in use during the Cuba & Puerto Rico actions).

She wrote that the term "Hiker", (as applied to SAW soldiers), likely developed later. It probably originated from the drawn out campaigns in the Philippines, to suppress the Insurrection, with arduous marches ("Hikes") through mountainous and jungle terrain.

Ms. Beetham noted some lyrics from a "Hiking in the Philippines" song:

"At your breakfast don't you hurry / eat another dish of beans; / For you'll need it - don't you worry / Hiking in the Philippines!"

BTW - Newman copyrighted his sculpture as: "The Hiker", in 1911.

Oshkosh has a beautifully sited SAW Memorial, by gosh!