Dallas’ Robert E. Lee statue has a new home.
A private buyer shipped it to a Lajitas golf course owned by oil and gas billionaire Kelcy Warren almost exactly two years since the Confederate General was pulled from its perch in what was then Lee Park. On Monday, the sculpture completed a 600-mile journey to Black Jack’s Crossing near the border, about a dozen miles from Terlingua. It was mounted on a pediment in the middle of the golf course’s putting green on Thursday, according to Scott Beasley, who manages the course for Dallas-based WSB Resorts and Clubs.
“I’m standing here on the putting green looking at it right now,” Beasley said Friday morning. “It’s just spectacular.”
The private owner is Addison-based attorney Ronald Holmes of Holmes Firm PC, a friend of the course who was down in Terlingua for Thursday’s dedication. According to Beasley, the monument is a gift. Holmes did not return a call about the donation. We also have an email out to Warren.
Dallas sold the statue for $1.4 million in June after the City Council decided to auction it off. Its minimum purchase price was $450,000. At first, we only knew the buyer by his online auction name—LawDude. City documents identified Holmes, but he hadn’t hinted at what he’d do with his new hunk of Alexander Phimister Proctor-made metal.
There were weeks of discussion leading up to the 13-1 Council vote on September 5, 2017, ending with it being taken down and stored. Opponents saw it as an attempt to rewrite history. But the majority of voices around the horseshoe viewed it as a monument to white supremacy and oppression. The piece was made in 1935, well after the end of the Civil War, and depicts Lee on his horse alongside another Confederate soldier.
Beasley doesn’t seem concerned about any controversy. Business is apparently booming at its new home, a course that has been perennially named among the top five or so in the state.
“We’ve had the best year we’ve ever had,” said Beasley.
