Removed in 2023, Columbia's iconic fire hydrant statue lays on its side in a field. Why?

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27-03-2025

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It's been two years since a Columbia icon was taken down and carted off.
'Busted Plug,' the 40-foot fire hydrant statue that for years sat near the intersection of Taylor and Bull streets in downtown Columbia, hasn't been seen since it was transported across town on the back of a flatbed truck in 2023, after a new owner of the site where it sat asked the city to remove it.
Today, the sculpture by local artist Blue Sky can still be seen, barely, on the other side of the trees behind a locked gate at the end of a dirt road north of town, where it sits outdoors in an open lot.
Blue Sky has voiced his displeasure with the situation, as the piece of public art he spent so much time and effort creating has essentially disappeared.
'They trashed it,' the artist wrote under a Facebook post lamenting the sculpture's absence. 'They have no intention of bringing it back. My lawyer has been working on this. He is not making any progress. It's a done deal... a dirty rotten political deal.'
The city of Columbia was emphatic that it intends to relocate the statue. Payton Lang, a spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Rickenmann's office, said the mayor is still firm on the relocation plans, but she could not confirm a timeline or location.
The State confirmed that 'Busted Plug' is in the field, partially visible from a dirt road leading to the property.
The statue remains on the property of the contractor that removed the sculpture from downtown, Columbia spokesperson Justin Stevens said. 'It's sitting on their property,' he said, adding that the sculpture is too large to be stored indoors, but that it is being preserved.
Stevens said he could not yet say where the statue would be relocated to because the city did not know yet. The most likely future location would be somewhere on the Congaree riverfront, he said.
The artwork previously sat curbside, just like its undersized colleagues on the Columbia water system, next to a downtown parking lot that also features the 'Tunnelvision' mural, also painted by Blue Sky. The sculpture was originally installed in 2001 to mark the anniversary of AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, and then gifted to the city in 2012 when the bank moved.
Blue Sky told The State he was proud of the piece and the attention it got from passersby along Taylor Street, noting his giant fire hydrant had even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
'It's popular as a roadside civic interest,' he said. 'It's pop art.'
But once it was transferred to the city, he says 'Busted Plug' was neglected. Its lighting was turned off, and the water feature became non-functional.
'It was a working fire hydrant,' the artist said. 'It actually pumped water, and cost a fortune.'
Blue Sky says he resisted efforts by the city to move the plug, because it was designed specifically for the Taylor Street site.
'A project like that can't just be hauled off and put somewhere else,' he said. 'It was 10 feet below ground. Then they just whacked it off at ground level. That's like chopping off the top of a plant and leaving the roots.'
When the property it sat on was sold, the city was asked to move 'Busted Plug,' and crowds watched as all 675,000 pounds of the sculpture were hauled away on Feb. 23, 2023.
Columbia is currently in talks to design a waterfront park along the Congaree River between the Blossom and Gervais street bridges, part of long-running plans to develop Columbia's riverfront. The sculpture could be planned into that site, Stevens said, adding that because of the sculpture's size, it may be hard to find space for it on a different portion of the riverfront, like at the Columbia Canal park, for example.
Last month, the city put out a request for qualified designers to plan the riverfront park. Stevens said the sculpture could make its way into those plans, but he added nothing regarding the relocation has been finalized.
But Blue Sky doesn't think the city is really interested in his art work. About 10 years ago, he thought he'd reached an understanding that if it needed to be relocated, the sculpture would go to Finlay Park to a site he had selected, but nothing ever came of that idea, and the downtown park itself is now undergoing extensive renovations.
'The city has no interest in it,' he said. 'What will happen is, when public interest in it wears off and it's just sitting out there in the field, they'll sell it off to somewhere in California for a few thousand dollars.'
This story was updated following an interview with artist Blue Sky.