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26-foot-tall Bay Area freeway icon removed after 50 years
By Gillian Mohney, News EditorOct 7, 2025
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A statue of  [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/whsieh78/7532393032/in/photolist-GvNp8D-ctBu2o-mpHGyR-6hBua8-Fbe2Z-7a7DbR-pnp8pq-6aY6cC-2vqFP8-7vB7nH-QuFDa]Junipero Serra stands on a hilltop above Interstate 280 in Hillsborough, Calif. 
Wayne Hsieh via Flickr CC 2.0
For 50 years, a massive 26-foot-tall statue of Junipero Serra watched over motorists along Interstate 280 at the Crystal Springs rest stop in Hillsborough. But now the iconic concrete statue is no more after it was removed by Caltrans this summer. 
“The installation did not meet current Transportation Art Program requirements and had been a frequent target of graffiti and vandalism,” Jeneane Crawford, a spokesperson for Caltrans District 4, told SFGATE in an email.
The statue’s removal in August alongside the freeway that’s also named for Serraattracted little attention initially. But in recent weeks, social media users have wonderedwhere it went.
Caltrans said that the statue had been “evaluated for eligibility in the California Register of Historical Resource” but was deemed ineligible. There are currently no plans to replace the statue with any other artwork. 
The statue of Junipero Serra, an 18th century Catholic priest and later saint who founded several California missions, including San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, was created in 1975 by artist Louis DuBois. The immense statute was made of concrete and steel rebar, and depicted Serra looking out and pointing. It was dedicated in 1976, according to the Smithsonian Museum.
Serra is also commemorated with a statue in the U.S. Capitol building, but in recent years he’s drawn more criticism. Protesters have pulled down or defaced statues of Serra in California over his role in the California Mission system, which enslaved and forcibly assimilated Indigenous people, leading to cultural destruction and widespread death from disease.
Caltrans said it consulted with DuBois’ family in addition to local Ohlone tribes and “multiple historical, arts, and religious organizations” before the work was removed. 
Jonathan Cordero, executive director of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, told SFGATE via email that they wanted to work with Caltrans to have the statue removed to “serve as a precedent for similar future actions.” The association sent Caltrans a letter in 2020 asking for the statue’s removal. 
“While Serra is an important historical figure, his accomplishments as Catholic missionary … are not worthy of honoring in statuary,” read the letter co-signed by Cordero. “Such an honoring offends many Indigenous peoples of California, especially the Ramaytush Ohlone who are the original peoples of the entire San Francisco Peninsula.” 
But Catholic officials said they were concerned about how the statue’s removal was handled. Peter Marlow, the executive director of communication for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said in an emailed statement that many parishioners had “reached out to us to express their concerns” after the statue’s removal. 
“It is incumbent upon government to be transparent and to not take actions that appear to single out particular groups in a negative way,” Marlow wrote on behalf of the Archdiocese. “It also appears that this action was carried out in the dark of the night.”

In high school, one of my friend's called this 'Father Pointatchu' and that always stuck with me.