The Scottville Clown Band poses around The Big Noise sculpture
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
SCOTTVILLE — The unveiling of the newest installment of the Mason County Sculpture Trail took place today, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, at Scottville Optimist Park. The Big Noise, created by local artist Harold David Cronk, was revealed. The event included presentations by Joe Knowles, chairman of the Scottville Downtown Development Authority, myself, and Cronk. It also included a brief performance by the Scottville Clown Band.
Representing the Mason County Historical Society and the Scottville Clown Band, of which I serve on both boards, it was my task to speak about the historical significance of the sculpture and to introduce the artist. I felt my speech sums up any news article I would write about the event:
When I was asked to serve on the Scottville sculpture committee seven or eight years ago, we started to brainstorm the theme of our sculpture. There was no doubt in my mind that there were two main elements that defined Scottville: It’s agricultural roots and the Scottville Clown Band. Both have been integral parts of this town for well over 120 years.
Joe Knowles, left, Harold Cronk, and Dr. Bill Anderson, who helped create the Mason County Sculpture Trail.
In many ways, the story of Scottville isn’t much different than just about any small rural town around the country. It began with lumbering and then changed to become the agricultural center of the county. It saw its most prosperous days in the mid-20th century through the 1980s. Then, it saw a decline. Farming methods changed. Transportation improved. Retail businesses became more corporate. Scottville’s story is pretty much the same as any small town.
Except, it’s not. Because unlike any other town in this country, Scottville has something unique. The Scottville Clown Band. No other town has anything like it.
The band brings joy to many who watch it and all those who perform in it. It has changed over the years. It has grown from a small group of men wearing hobo costumes and playing a few songs to a non-profit charitable organization with over 200 members of both men and women. Its membership extends way beyond the boundaries of Mason County and it performs across Michigan and sometimes beyond. And each time that bus rolls into another town, it is a big billboard promoting Scottville.
But, the Clown Band is more than just a band. It is a family.
Ray Schulte, who re-formed the band in 1947, following its hiatus during World War II, once told me that the Scottville Clown Band was the true joy of his life and his proudest achievement after his family. In fact, the band was his family. I think for many of us who are members of the Scottville Clown Band we can say the same. We each have great joy bringing laughter and smiles to our audience. We each take great pride in the music we create.
The band’s roots date back to 1903. Not many organizations in this county have lasted that long. One of the keys to our success is we always have replacement parts. At any given time, there may be three generations of one family playing in the band. Our members’ ages range from 15 to 103, and I am not exaggerating. Ray Schulte, back in 1947, was already the second generation of his family to perform in the band.
Additionally, the band not only encourages young members to join, it also invests in them. Since the early 1960s, the Scottville Clown Band has provided over half a million dollars in scholarships to middle school and high school students who attend summer music programs such as Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. This year alone the band rewarded over $18,000 in scholarships, the most ever in its history. In honor of our founding members from 1947, the band rewards thousands of dollars in grants annually to school music programs in Mason, Lake, Oceana and Manistee counties, our home base.
On behalf of the Scottville Clown Band and also the Mason County Historical Society, which is the official keeper of the Clown Band’s historical archives, I would like to thank the Scottville Downtown Development Authority for its hard work in the creation of this sculpture and the improvements to this park, including the Scottville Clown Band Shell. I would like to thank Joe Knowles for all his dedication to this along with the other members of the sculpture and park committee who have served through the past several years.
As I mentioned earlier, the members of the first sculpture committee knew that the theme of this sculpture needed to center around our town’s agricultural roots and its Clown Band. We also knew that the task of creating this sculpture needed to be done by one of our own. The unanimous choice was to commission Harold David Cronk, known locally as Dave, as the artist who would best create a sculpture that would reflect the spirit of those themes in a way that would stand out.
Dave is a 1993 graduate of Mason County Central High School and a graduate of West Shore Community College. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Central Michigan University, where he majored in art and K-12 education with an emphasis in sculpture.
After a stint of teaching high school art, he decided to follow his dreams of making films. He and his wife, Amy, also a 1993 graduate of MCC, moved to Los Angeles, later returning to settle down in Amber Township to raise their two children, Evy and Harry, while Dave continued a successful film career and Amy was hired as a middle school teacher at MCC.
Among the many movies Dave has directed is “God’s Not Dead,” one of the highest grossing Christian films of all time. He received an Emmy for directing the Disney television series “The Quest.”
Statement from Harold Cronk:
First and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Amy and our kids, Evy and Harry, for putting up with the noise, the late nights, and the metal shavings that somehow found their way into the laundry.
To my mother, Helen, my mother-in-law, Bonnie, my sisters and their families — thank you for standing by me through every stage of this wild ride. It’s been a process, to say the least.
Also to two men whom I miss so much who have made such an impact on me and my journey as an artist my late father-in-law Norm Letsinger, who, like it or not, contributed one of his wood turnings to the sculpture and my father Harry Cronk, who was everything I never knew I needed in a father.
A huge thanks to our DDA and the original Sculpture Committee — including my new neighbor, Sally Cole and her incredibly talented husband Jerry (who’ve had front-row seats to the chaos in my studio), Rob Alway, Marcy Spencer, Carla Mayer, Dean Raven, Amy Williams, Kathy McClain and Nancy Sanford. Thank you!
And to my ninja squad of thinkers, fabers, and partners:
- Zach Zupin, who lifted what I couldn’t.
- Dan Nelson, who welded with love.
- Mike Anderson, Paul Cooper, Jill Peterson and Sam Cole at Epic Manufacturing who made the impossible possible.
- Lisa Cooper and Ryan Howe for keeping the caffeine flowing — and happy anniversary to State & Main!
- Aaron Alley of Mission Graphics for printing every one of my crazy plans.
- Randy “The Tooth” Krause and Marshall Music of Traverse City
- Dag Hascall and Hascall Steel.
- Dick Alway and the entire Alway clan for parting with a 1941 John Deere B.
- Russ and Charlie from Larsen’s Landscaping for incredible site work.
- Russ Scholtens for a whole lot of, “Watch this”.
- James Malonebeach – my mentor and a truly incredible artist.
- And Lynsey Marcellus — your calm, steady hand in the studio these past several months kept me sane-ish.
To the Scottville Optimist Club — thank you for your generous donation of this building and grounds.
And to every donor, every volunteer, and every member of this community who gave their time, their sweat, their used instruments or their encouragement — this moment belongs to you.
And finally, Joe Knowles — who has been absolutely dogged in seeing this project through to the end. Joe, thank you for your persistence and partnership.
The Opportunity
When the committee approached me about creating a sculpture through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, I felt… intrigued. Excited. And terrified. But ultimately, inspired.
Most of the public art around us had been created by artists from out of state — not by people who actually lived in the community (Fountain, you’re the exception. Well done, Fountain.).
I agreed on two conditions: First, we needed a permanent home for the work. Second, what I would created would most certainly not be traditional.
Those two conditions launched an eight-year journey that has led us here today, together, to celebrate not just a sculpture, but the spirit of Scottville itself.
This park is becoming an incredible gathering place — a space to reflect, recharge, and dream. A place where our kids can imagine impossible things… and where our seniors can be reminded that they are still impossible dreamers. A place where our community can come together.
The Sculpture
An homage to our agricultural history and our incredible Scottville Clown Band, I’ve titled this work The Big Noise.
I felt it for the first time when I was 11 years old right there on State and Main streets. We had just moved to Scottville and it was my first Harvest Festival. I’ll never forget the wave of joy that filled me as the Clown Band marched by and that big noise washed over me for the first time.
It is my hope that this work captured a hint of that feeling and will inspire the youth of Scottville to see the world differently, to dream beyond what feels reasonable, to realize that the impossible is always just one good idea away.
Because I was that kid once – a Scottville dreamer with wild ideas too big for my britches, and now we have a place for the next generation of dreamers to dream their own.
But this is more than just a giant wind-up toy clown on a John Deere tractor. It’s a love letter – to The Clown Band, to this community, to our roots, and to the beautiful contradiction that defines Scottville.
It’s whimsical yet grounded. Rust and wear meets bright shiny brass. Sweat and blood meets laughter and music. Old and new, all playing together – a symphony of sound and form, hand forged from our shared history.
Throughout the process I let creativity take over. I played. I experimented. I explored tension, line, movement, balance, form, gravity — all working together to bring something into life.
This work draws from our agricultural heritage, our ingenuity, our resilience, and our joy. It’s strong, but delicate. It will need care. It won’t last forever — nothing does. It is a snapshot of this moment — and this moment only ever exists now.
And that moment is one of change — maybe even chaos. And it can feel like we have been planted here. In the dark. But remember — soil is where roots take hold.
It’s where strength is formed. And it’s from here — from Scottville — that dreams grow, rise up, and reach the light. Because in Scottville, we know how to help our friends. In Scottville, we know hard work — and we don’t shy away from it. We’re not afraid to get our hands dirty, but damn we clean up good. In Scottville we can be bull-headed for sure.
See, we have the will of a Spartan, and a heart the size of a base drum. We hustle, we hunt, we fish, we build, we laugh, we grow, and when the work’s done… we can get a little wild. We make a little noise.
This sculpture — this joyful, defiant machine of brass, bronze, steel, and copper — is more than the sum of its parts. It’s a mirror of who we are: resilient, creative, and always marching forward.
May The Big Noise remind us that Scottville will always be a place where underdogs are born, where community matters, and where music and laughter always take the stage.
Read more about the Mason County Sculpture Trail here.
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