“Holding on to Freedom.” That’s the title of the new eagle statue in front of the Expo Building at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
It will be dedicated at 7 p.m. Saturday at the America 250: Buffalo County Celebration at the fairgrounds at 3807 N Ave.
The eagle is the work of Mike Sughroue, a sculptor and Holdrege native who farmed for 30 years near Indianola. Five years ago, he and his wife Gail moved to a home north of Kearney.
Mike Sughroue stands in front of the eagle he created in celebration of America's 250th birthday. It's at the Buffalo County fairgrounds.
Sughroue’s work is spread throughout central Nebraska. In 1992, he did two sandchill cranes for the Hastings Museum. In April 2025, he created a horse from spare parts that sits in the Midtown Sculpture Garden in Holdrege. Several of his pieces can also be seen in Tulsa.
The eagle was the brainchild of Gopi Vasudevan, chair of the America 250: Buffalo County Celebration committee. Vasudevan had a vision of an eagle statue in honor of the nation’s semiquincentennial but had trouble finding a sculptor. Most such pieces take at least a year to create. Vasudevan had only eight or nine months.
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Then committee member Brandon Schade, a pyrotechnician who will put on Saturday’s fireworks show at the fairgrounds, suggested Sughroue, who happens to be his father-in-law.
Schade and Vasudevan went out to see Sughroue and were immediately impressed with the eagle sculpture that stands in front of his house. They had found their artist.
Mike Sughroue poses with the eagle he sculpted that stands in front of his home. It was the inspiration for the one that will be dedicated Saturday evening.
Sughroue agreed to recreate that sculpture for the county. In January, he was ready to take a small version to Art Casting of Colorado, a reputed bronze art foundry in Loveland, which had the larger original mold. It began the six-month, multi-step process of producing the eagle for Buffalo County.
Painting since kindergarten
Sughroue has been painting since kindergarten. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
He also worked off and on at Industrial Pipeline, a company owned by his father that supplied water and set up sprinkler systems from New Mexico to Wyoming. He and Gail had five children.
In 1995, his father had a stroke, so Sughroue returned to Industrial Pipeline. He purchased the company in 1998. “It was a busy time. I had 10 employees, and I still had my ranch in Indianola. I had 600 head of cattle,” he said.
He relaxed by doing artwork. His studio was inside the former Nebraska National Guard armory in Hastings, a building he owned.
Mike Sughroue works in a large shed on his property that's full of paintings, and more, that he's done in recent years.
When Gail’s father passed away, the Sughroues had to clean out his old shop. “We didn’t want to haul all that stuff to the dump and throw it away, so we just kept it,” he said.
On a whim, he began welding various pieces together. One thing led to another. A pair of pliers became a bird’s beak. He added chainsaw chains, spades, flat washers and more and created a sandhill crane.
That crane now stands in a roundabout west of the SportsPlex. He called it “junk sculpture,” because it’s crafted of pieces of junk.
Sughroue makes art out of pieces of junk, like this sandhill crane that stands in a roundabout west of the Sportsplex. Look closely. See what you can find.
“I just made that crane for fun, but the city saw it and asked what I wanted for it, so I sold that to them very cheaply. It was just farm equipment, just forks and knives and bicycle chains, all sorts of stuff,” he said.
“Nobody will ever be able to copy it. I never do anything exactly the same,” he said.
Flying high at the fairgrounds
Meanwhile, with the eagle sculpture in progress, Vasudevan needed a site for it. After several fits and starts at other sites around Kearney, the Buffalo County Fairgrounds was happy to accept it.
“The board talked and said we’d like to put it out here if we could find a spot,” Dave Roseberry, fairgrounds manager, said. They did. The board also paid for the concrete base and the lighting.
Last week, Sughroue picked up the 7-foot-high eagle in Loveland. It was installed at the fairgrounds June 24.
Roseberry said a sidewalk will be installed leading up to the statue so visitors can read the plaques on the 5-foot-by-5-foot concrete base naming its donors, the names of the America 250 committee and more.
“It’s a great addition,” Roseberry said.
Mike Sughroue keeps busy with all kinds of art projects, including this nearly finished diorama of sandhill cranes.
Sughroue rarely sells his work except for pieces he is commissioned to do. He has sold woodcarvings and paintings at Art in the Park in past years, but much of his art is still stacked up in his work shed on his place north of Kearney. That's the way he likes it. He just enjoys doing it.
“I’ve been doing this for 70 years, so it’s more than just a hobby,” he said. ”As for the eagle, I was happy to participate. I was glad to do it.”
