ATTLEBORO -- They are all gone now. The wooden statues that once decorated a field at the corner of Rathbun Willard Drive and Dennis Street have mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps taken in the dead of night by a stranger unknown.
It’s just a vacant field on the back nine of what was once Highland Country Club and is now Highland Park. The cartoon characters represented by the wooden statues weren't maintained and slowly rotted until they crumbled or fell down. But they didn’t go far.
All are piled on pallets tucked away in a corner of the field, hidden by woods, at the bottom of a hill next to the House of Dumont. It was established on Nov. 25, 1954 at 1 Rathbun Willard Drive, as a plaque on the home says.
Like corpses, they lie and show their rotted bases and worn-away faces. The Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz" is the only one still standing, and she guards a path leading to them. Near her is half a face peering out of the ground.
Very frightening. The latest city assessor's records show the owner is Al Dumont, owner of the Attleboro Landfill, which is now a Superfund site polluted with hazardous materials. The property at 1 Rathbun Willard is 2.
79 acres and sports a fancy brick home surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. According the assessors record, its value is $1,006,100. Late last week, a reporter seeking some history on the statues went to the House of Dumont and rang the bell and knocked.
No one answered. Three years ago a person named “Wilk” wr.