Lions Club celebrates return of classic water fountain to Fred Miller Park

Many members of the community gathered at Fred Miller Park Friday evening to celebrate the return of the king of the jungle, Fred the Lion.

The Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club held its grand opening celebration at 6 p.m. with the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce, elected officials and other local leaders for the lion’s return.

The story of Fred is a little blurry, but it began in the 70s when the Cherokee Lions Club put him in the park for the first time. However, after many years of wear and tear he was moved to storage in the late 90s.

For the next 20 years, he sat in Morristown Parks and Recreation Department’s storage, hidden from the community.

It wasn’t until the Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club held its 2021 carnival fundraiser that the group decided to invest in restoring the lion.

“When we held our carnival fundraiser in 2021, it did so well that we decided to put some money into the community,” said Lisa Grooms, the club’s secretary. “The original plan was to put a lion’s bench somewhere in the community and while searching online Johnny Denton our president saw the lion fountain and began to investigate the whereabouts of the lion.

“He called me and said he was going to call the road department to see if they know where it’s at. It wasn’t 15 minutes when he called back saying he found it. He told me the Parks and Rec. Department had it in storage and he wanted to restore it and put it back out. I told him that I would be excited to do that, but before we present the idea to the club, we need to have a plan.”

Denton called Lion’s Drinking Fountains, based in Minnesota, who produces the lions, if the business could restore the fountain. In late 2021, after receiving their interest in the project, the club went to work with preparations for Fred’s trip.

“We had to build a crate to put him in to ship him to Minnesota,” Grooms said. “After the crate was finished Johnny brought him to a meeting and we got to put Fred in the box and nail him shut to send him off.”

Once the company received Fred, they were ready to get to work to restore him.

“They had to sand blast him to get all of the old paint off and reprocess the interior and exterior of the body,” Grooms said. “He is the original lion and he is exactly the same as before, but the only difference is before his eyes were closed and now his eyes are open which we think looks a lot better.”

The country was facing a pandemic and many employees were afraid to return to work, so the company had to delay the completion of Fred.

With the transfer of leadership at the parks of recreation department, the club faced another delay.

“It was February of 2023 and Johnny spoke with Travis Barbee, the new director of the department, and told him that we needed water for the fountain and he said ‘ok.’ It was so great that he was so willing and helpful in the process of completing this project.”

After receiving the fountain and getting approval by the recreation department, the next step was finding a home for Fred.

“We couldn’t set him at the same spot because of the walking path that is there now,” Grooms said. “We realized that we would have to put in a new water pipe for the fountain, but when we went to the department that told us they had the perfect spot for us.

“They took us up to the park and showed us an old water fountain that sat outside the Bishop Goodman Pavilion that hasn’t worked in years. That saved us having to put in a water line. After that we had the place, the water and the lion; the next step was having to put the lion there.”

Denton reached out to Chris Lampkin with Lampkin Construction to assist with the project.

“We told him that we would work on his schedule so whenever he had time to put it in he could,” Groom said. “Then one day he called Johnny and told him he wanted to put it in so we rushed down there to see it.”

After Ready Mix USA installed the concrete path to the fountain, Fred was ready to be opened to the public.

Seeing the community’s support, Grooms and the club are glad they could restore a piece of history for the area.

“We have heard so many stories from the community about how Fred was a part of their childhood and now they can take their kids or grandkids to see him and it just makes you feel good and lucky that you could do something like that for the community.”

State reps. Rick Eldridge, Jeremy Faison and State Sen. Steve Southerland presented the club with a proclamation for its dedication to its mission.

“One of the best parts of what we do at the capital is recognize service organizations and explain the contributions that they give to their community,” Eldridge said. “The Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club is one of those great organizations who truly make a difference in their community.”

“We want to recognize you for your contributions because you all have changed so many lives and this community is lucky to have you. So on behalf of myself, Jeremy Fiason, Steve Southerland and Jay Reedy (District 74 state rep and a Lions club member), we thank you and present this proclamation for your service.”

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