You can’t miss this monument in Glendale Cemetery; set off by itself, and unique among the funerary monuments in the area.
Conrad Stormer was a successful lumber mill owner, and his statue is bedecked with various accouterments of his trade.
Above, Stormer holds an axe to his side, referring to his lumberjacking.
I have no idea of the symbolism of the mushrooms and ivy leaves.
I like the detail on the rope, perhaps referring to the pull down of trees or transportation of logs.
The large saw is easily explained, as he made his fortune off of a sawmill. I suspect that much of the lumber in the historic buildings in Washington and nearby towns came from his mill.
Read about his old logging land here, where now apparently Caterpillar drives its vehicles around to test them.
Ivy on a tombstone means immortality and/or rebirth, so I guess it hints at belief in a final resurrection. Got me on the mushrooms, though. Maybe a reference to the fact that they keep coming back or their resilience or that they spring from "nothing?"
The only reference to the appearance of mushrooms I could find is here: http://csp.org/chrestomathy/apples_apollo.htmlSkip down to "Chapter 3, Perseus the Mushroom Picker."While a fascinating read, I think it can be summarized as "a culmination of one's career."I DO wonder if this is even a semi-accurate interpretation?