MARQUETTE – Officials in Marquette have installed security cameras in hopes of preventing further vandalism of the Father Marquette statue in the Upper Peninsula city.
The Mining Journal of Marquette reports two cameras have been placed on the Lake Superior Community Partnership building along Front Street. The cameras cost $2,000.
The statue has been at its current site for about a century. It first was erected in Marquette in 1897.
Someone put red paint on the statue in November 2012. After several months of restoration, green paint was found on it last June.
Father Jacques Marquette was a Jesuit explorer. He served as a missionary in the region and was believed to have camped near modern day Marquette while mapping Lake Superior in 1669.
