Well, it's been about a week since I asked if anyone out in the Blog-O-Sphere could tell me what the unknown artifact actually was. There were a bunch of interesting answers, but only one was correct. Betty Petzak hit the nail on the head when she said that "The artifact was a platform with a lady on a horse advertising the Steel Pier high diving horse show." Her observation was confirmed by Steve Eichinger who was exploring the remains with Rickey "White Shoes" Steele this past January. Steve remembers seeing the plaster sculpture of the lady on the diving horse in the 1940's. White Shoes was just a baby at the time.
The roadside advertising display was placed on property owned by the Hedevary family. George Hedevary, now in his 90's, remembers that the family received free passes to the Steele Pier for allowing the lady and the diving horse to be placed on their property. They thought it was a pretty good deal.
In the 1940's roadside advertising was in its hay day. In our area much of the roadside advertising was for the Steel Pier in Atlantic City which was a major east coast tourist attraction which drew traffic from the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia and New York. The statue reminded tourists traveling from New York to Atlantic City along "Old New York Road", now Route 9, that they were getting close to their destination.
The Steel Pier in Atlantic City brought a lot of traffic through New Gretna, as tourists from New York traveled through town along Old New York Road, now Route 9, during the 1940's and 1950's, before the construction of the Garden State Parkway. (Postcard courtesy of Google Images.)
The only remains of the advertising sculpture is the wooden frame of the base, a mere skeleton of its former grandeur.
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The sole remains of the Diving Horse advertising sculpture off Route 9 in New Gretna. (January 14, 2010 photo by Pete Stemmer.)
I have not been able to find a photo of the Lady and the Horse. It was likely a cement based plaster sculpture, an art form that was popular at that time. The following photo, while not the Lady on the Horse, shows the distinctive style which was perfect for advertising the many attractions available at the Steele Pier.
It is a similar base of the advertising structure that remains in the woods along Route 9 in New Gretna. The words were probably similar with the "See Baby Animals at" likely replaced with "See the Diving Horse at".
I remember my parents taking me to the Steel Pier in the early 1950's to see the diving horse. For its time, it was quite a site, although by today's standards it would probably be rather tame. We've become too sophisticated for such simple entertainment, and I'm not sure we're the better for it.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting the Diving Horse at the Steel Pier, you may enjoy the following video. For others, it may bring back pleasant memories. Enjoy!
Pete S