The sculpture garden is the eye-catching legacy of Allen Bakke, who farmed until he became ill with cancer, and then spent his twilight years building images of importance in his life. The site is just to the west of Grant County Highway 20. Bakke died of lung cancer on June 13, 2013, at age 72, but his family remembers him as an artist of steel and cement. Allen took drafting classes at North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton and enlisted in the Air Force for four years before farming. He was a member of United Lutheran Church in Elbow Lake. His wife, Sharon, died in 2009.
Allen worked two years on his final piece — a 20-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ, which stands on a grain bin foundation, next to an existing grain bin. The piece is visible for more than a mile along the highway. He made it of mesh, so the wind can blow through it. He had to hire a fellow with a crane to stand it up.
Bakke's first major sculpture — the Virgin Mary, is a 22-foot concrete statue which stands in the hills of Leaf Mountain Township near Millerville, in Douglas County, Minn. The project was commissioned by Bill Danelke, a Catholic, who as a young man had been cured of cancer after praying to the Virgin Mary for healing. According to the county historical society, Danelke commissioned Allen and Lyle Alvstad of Ashby, Minn., to complete the statue. It was dedicated in 1993.