Statue of Liberty
Middle Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Second replica of the Statue of Liberty, built in the 1990s to replace the original from the 1980s, which was built for the original statue's centennial. It is 25 feet tall and made of wood, metal, and fiberglass.
The Story
In the middle of the Susquehanna River near Dauphin, a 25-foot Statue of Liberty stands atop an old bridge pier, one of Pennsylvania's most beloved roadside surprises. The first version went up in 1986 for the centennial of the real Lady Liberty in New York Harbor, a local labor of love built from scrap; when weather wore it down, a sturdier replica of wood, metal, and fiberglass rose in its place in the 1990s. Motorists on Route 322 have been doing a double-take ever since.
Why it matters
The little river Liberty shows how deeply the Statue of Liberty's promise of welcome and freedom is woven into the American imagination — enough that a community would raise its own copy midstream just to keep her in view.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Some landmarks earn their place through age; this one earns it through sheer surprise. On the Susquehanna River near Dauphin, Pennsylvania, a 25-foot Statue of Liberty stands out in the water, catching drivers off guard on a stretch of road where they expected only river and hills.
The Susquehanna is one of the great old rivers of the East, wide and shallow and studded with the remains of past crossings and structures. Setting a small Lady Liberty out on that broad expanse turns an everyday commute into a double-take, and it has done so for years.
This is a landmark of the recent past, not the distant one — a piece of late-twentieth-century folk creativity rather than colonial or Revolutionary history. Its story is about affection and upkeep, about a community deciding it liked something enough to keep it standing.
People & events
The tale behind the statue is one of replacement and renewal. According to the marker, the version you see today is the second replica, built in the 1990s to take the place of an earlier one from the 1980s.
That first statue was raised for the centennial of the real Statue of Liberty — the milestone marking a hundred years since the famous copper figure was dedicated in New York Harbor. Marking a national anniversary with a homemade tribute out on a local river is exactly the kind of grassroots gesture that gives a place its character.
The original could not last forever against river weather, and so a sturdier successor rose in its place, built of wood, metal, and fiberglass and standing 25 feet tall. The swap is really the heart of the story: the community did not simply let the landmark fade when the first one wore out. They rebuilt it, which is its own quiet form of devotion.
Its place in the American story
The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor became, over time, one of the most powerful symbols in American life — a shorthand for welcome, freedom, and the promise held out to newcomers. Few images are so instantly understood.
What this little river replica shows is how deeply that symbol has soaked into the everyday American imagination. A community did not need to live beside the harbor to feel the pull of Lady Liberty; they wanted her in view badly enough to build their own, and then to build her again.
That impulse — to copy a national icon and plant it in a distinctly local spot — is a very American habit. It turns a monument meant for the whole country into something a single town can claim as its own, keeping a shared ideal close to home.
If you visit
This is a landmark best enjoyed as a moment rather than a destination. You will likely spot the statue from the road along the Susquehanna, a small green figure standing out where the water is wide, and the fun of it is in that first surprised glance.
Because the statue sits out in the river rather than on the bank, treat it as something to see and photograph from a safe vantage point on shore, not to reach on foot. The river setting is part of the charm — Lady Liberty framed by open water and Pennsylvania hills.
Fold it into a scenic drive along the Susquehanna and let it be exactly what it was meant to be: a delightful roadside oddity that makes you smile and, maybe, think for a second about how far a symbol can travel from the harbor where it began.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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