The Monteagle Eagle Comes Home to Roost

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer
The majestic Monteagle Hotel burned in 1950, but the symbolic eagle statue continued to grace the front lawn until one dark and stormy night in November of 1952. The eagle mysteriously vanished. Perched on a globe atop a stone mound, the 70 pound eagle with a six-foot plus wing span appeared to have been excised from its roost with tin snips. Just days later the eagle reappeared at Tennessee Tech, the eagle’s pot-metal finish hidden beneath a coat of lustrous gold paint befitting the school’s revered mascot, the golden eagle. Suspended from the ceiling in Memorial Gym to rally enthusiasm for the big Thanksgiving game against the school’s arch rival MTSU, the noble eagle had the desired effect. The student body roared approval. But chagrinned Tech President Everett Derryberry rushed up to the stage demanding to know how the eagle came into the students’ possession.
Unknown to the three students who masterminded the middle of the night hijack, Derryberry had recently heard the hotel burned and contacted hotel owner John Harton about purchasing the eagle for a school emblem. Back in Monteagle, tempers flared when the town learned of their eagle’s fate. A group of incensed citizens were rumored to plot stealing the eagle back. But the Tech students had fallen in love with the eagle and had hidden it away under lock and key. Harton, a former state treasurer, initially refused to sell or donate the eagle to the school. Finally Governor Frank G. Clement, Harton’s longtime friend, negotiated a compromise. Harton accepted $500 as payment for the eagle. Tech mounted the eagle atop the library and later moved it to a perch on the administration building, now Derryberry Hall.
Fast forward to 2013. The Harton family had made the former hotel grounds available to the city of Monteagle for use as a park. Within the park, the stone mound had acquired a new eagle statue fashioned by local iron artist Jamey Chernicky. The Laurel Lake Garden Club tended the array of plantings surrounding the eagle statue and while the women watered and weeded, a seed bloomed into an idea: Let’s get the original eagle back. The garden club women joined forces with the civic group Monteagle Women for a Better Tomorrow, and a small coalition of women paid a visit to current Tech President Phil Oldham.
When they walked into Oldham’s office, spokesperson for the group Iva Michelle Russell zeroed in on a picture of actor John Belushi, renowned for his frat-boy mischief in the film “Animal House.”
“When I saw the Belushi picture, I knew it would go well,” Russell said. A friendly, good-humored exchange followed with the women joking about how many bake sales it would take to purchase the eagle statue, and a few days later Oldham contacted the women with an idea. He proposed Tech create two exact replicas of the eagle, one for Tech and one for the town.Tech removed the eagle from Derryberry Hall and through a combination of high-tech scanning, modeling and 3-D printing made a mold. Before being delivered to a local foundry, the mold was used to make a plaster cast of the original eagle which is on display in the lobby at the Monteagle City Hall. Traditional metal casting and finishing techniques were employed to produce the two aluminum replicas. Weighing more than 400 pounds and sporting a shimmering golden finish, Monteagle’s eagle will be unveiled at 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, in Harton Park mounted on the same stone mound the original eagle once called home. The sister replica eagle will grace the entrance to Derryberry Hall.
Weather and age have taken their toll on the original eagle. Too fragile for outdoor display, the original will be enshrined in a glass case for viewing at the student union. While no one living can account for the eagle’s exact age, photos from the WWII era show returning soldiers pictured with the eagle, so she’s at least 70 years old.
The unveiling ceremony will include Monteagle Elementary School children reading their winning essays on Monteagle history and the official announcement of the eagle’s name, with the winning name selected from among the ideas submitted by students at MES.
Jamey Chernicky’s eagle, which has been standing guard at the Harton Park roost since 2011, has found a new home at the Monteagle Pavillion.
One legend has it that the town’s name is based on the Native American name for the location, Eagle Mountain, honoring the golden eagles who inhabit the region.
Like the mythological bird the phoenix that obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor, the Monteagle eagle will return to her roost in an aura of glory, splendor and good feelings all around.