Great Salt Lick Sculpture Removed from Court Plaza, Moving to Visitor Center

The bronze "Great Salt Lick" sculpture that stood in Court Plaza for more than a decade was removed on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, to allow construction on the Court Plaza redevelopment project, and is slated for reinstallation at the Baker County Chamber and Visitor Center, 490 Campbell St., Baker City, the Baker City Herald reported. The move clears the closed section of Court Street between Main and Resort streets so work can proceed.

Baker City Downtown is leading the Court Plaza redevelopment, a project estimated at $1.3 million that will add decorative concrete, tuff stone seating walls, planting beds, eight shade trees, three decorative light poles with power outlets and hanging-basket brackets, drip irrigation lines and security cameras. Funding partners listed by the Baker City Herald include the Oregon Parks and Recreation local government grant program, the Leo Adler Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation, Ash Grove Charitable Foundation, the Carl and Virginia Kostol Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, the D.E. and Jane Clark Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Buerkel-Zoellner Foundation. BCD launched a local pledge drive in June 2025 with a $50,000 goal and had raised $62,300 by Dec. 31, 2025.

The sculpture itself originated as a Ford Family Foundation leadership program project and was funded by a Ford Family grant plus local donations, created at Blue Mountain Fine Art in Baker City, the Herald reported. The Oregonian previously reported that Whit Deschner received a $5,000 Ford Family Foundation grant in 2014 to install a four-foot bronze in downtown Baker City, a detail consistent with local reports that the piece had been in place for more than 10 years.

The Great Salt Lick contest behind the work was founded by Whit Deschner in 2007 to raise money for Parkinson’s disease research at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Goeasternoregon notes the event has raised $239,000, earned the Oregon Festivals and Events Association Best Philanthropic Event award in 2012, and attracted national attention from NPR’s Weekend Edition, Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Art Beat, the front page of The Oregonian, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the Smithsonian website and displays in museums in Chicago, Vancouver B.C., and the Guggenheim in Los Angeles. HereIsOregon reported auction lore such as the sale of “The Queens Crown” for $2,900; HereIsOregon quoted Deschner saying, “I don’t know. It just hit a chord in people,” and “I was going to quit this year, but people kept bugging me.”

The Baker City Herald published a placement quote from Hobson regarding the Visitor Center site: “The salt lick has long been a unique and recognizable piece of Baker City’s cultural story, and we are honored to provide it with a new home where residents and visitors alike can experience it. After meeting on site with Whit and walking the grounds together, we selected a placement that reflects both the spirit of the sculpture and the welcoming role of the Visitor Center,” Hobson said. The Herald also reported that moving the bronze was necessary to allow plaza construction to proceed.

The Great Salt Lick contest is scheduled to return for its 17th run on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Churchill School in Baker City with Mib Dailey returning as auctioneer, the Baker City Herald reported. With the sculpture shifted to 490 Campbell St., Baker City Downtown can advance the Court Plaza construction on the closed block between Main and Resort streets that community donors and grant partners have funded.