One of Callaway County's connections with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., is the Firefighters Memorial statue in Kingdom City.
The six-foot by six-foot bronze statue is an exact duplicate of a statue that was given to the city of New York to honor fallen New York firefighters lost in the World Trade Center attacks.
The firm that created the statue, Pittsburgh-based Matthews International Corporation, donated it to the City of New York after the Firefighters Association of Missouri approved of the donation.
The Pittsburgh firm agreed to provide a duplicate of the original statue to the Missouri Firefighters Association. Missouri firefighters agreed to have its delivery date of the statue postponed so they could honor fallen New York firemen.
The original statue was placed on display near Times Square and the Milford Plaza Hotel, 700 8th Ave., between 44th and 45th streets.
The statue was displayed in front of the hotel for almost one year. But a spokesman for Matthews International has declined to disclose the current location of the statue, saying that information is confidential.
Kenny Hoover, Mexico, a former president of the Fire Fighters Memorial Foundation, said the foundation board is still attempting to learn the location of the original statue the group agreed to be donated to the city of New York.