By Tim Fleischer

Editor-in-Chief

Salado’s Main Street has been the Main Street of Texas forever, it seems. It was the Old Military Road and then Highway 81 before I-35 was ever conceived. It was a feeder trail on the Chisholm Trail during the cattle drives that links the image of Texas with that of the Longhorn and the Cowboy.

Now, thanks to John Barclay and Salado artist Ronnie Wells, Salado’s Main Street is further connected to the mythos of Texas and the Texas cowboy.

Perhaps the most famous literary cowboy, Gus McRae, sits about 100 feet outside the gallery of Ronnie Wells, who has called Salado home for more than three decades. Wells himself  is famous across the state as the State Sculptor (a title awarded by the Texas Legislature annually) and the nation as a Ducks Unlimited Artist. Wells’ monumental sculpture of Mallards sits outside the Ducks Unlimited headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.

Salado resident John Barclay approached Wells about two years ago with the idea of placing a lifesize statue of the two main characters from Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer-prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove at his property at 313 N. Main St. The Austinite had recently purchased the property and has plans to develop it into a complex with a large covered gathering space, beautifully landscaped grounds and mixed use buildings.

Barclay is going to call it Gus Plaza.

And he admitted during an unveiling of the life-size statue of Gus McCrae on March 24 that he may have gotten the cart before the horse.

Before building a pavilion or buildings or anything like that, two years ago Barclay commissioned Wells to sculpt a life-size bronze of Gus and placed it just off of Main St. so that visitors and locals could stop and sit down on the bench and have their pictures taken. 

The land there at 313 N. Main will be developed soon enough.

Until then, Gus sits there in a welcoming way, inviting you to come, sit beside him and talk for awhile.

And right away, people have been drawn to Gus. 

The unveiling was attended by more than 100 people, including State Rep. Brad Buckley, with his Maroon Texas Aggie boots, who gave brief remarks to the crowd.

John and Dolly Barclay, along with their son Andy, his wife Adrienne and their  nine-year-old son John and 20-month-old Grant unveiled the bronze statue for the audience.

The unveiling was highlighted by words from Robert Duvall. The 92-year-old actor will forever be connected to his role-of-a-lifetime as Gus McRae.

Duvall recorded the video just a day before the unveiling, who recalled a well-dressed lady who came up to him during a celebration by the Texas Rangers to tell him that “I would not let my daughter’s fiancee to marry  into my family until he had seen Lonesome Dove.” That’s how much it meant to her and that’s how much it means to me and also to the people of Salado, Texas.”

Duvall called Augustus McRae his favorite character of all time. “May he live forever,” he said.

Cast in bronze, he almost certain to do just that.