High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Coal Miner, is a public artwork by American artist John J. Szaton (1907–1966), located on the West lawn of the Indiana Statehouse or Capitol building, which is in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. This statue is a copy of a work by Szaton originally commissioned by the Illinois state government in 1963. The statue commemorates Indiana`s hard working coal miners and those who lost their lives in the state`s industrial history. It stands over 7 feet tall on a 3 foot tall granite base which is supported by a cement foundation 4-6 inches thick. The statue is cast bronze it was first sculpted in plaster and was later cast twice, once to create the Illinois statue which was dedicated in 1964 and later the Indiana statue which was dedicated in 1967, both were created at the Spampinato Art Workshop foundry in Chicago, Ill.