Even in a small city like Antioch, there are still surprises to be found spending an afternoon exploring. Just ask Misha Elliott and her daughter, Lori. The two were walking around downtown a couple of weeks ago and came upon a tall statue they hadn’t seen before.

“We’ve lived in Antioch for 10 years and have even been in that part of town but missed it,” Misha Elliott said.

The statue the Elliotts are referring to is called “The Cannery Lady,” located on West First Street near the Amtrak Station. In sixth grade, Lori is just beginning to learn about the local canneries where many of the women whom the Cannery Lady represents used to work. Hoping this statue depicted a specific woman they could learn about, the Elliotts were disappointed that there wasn’t much information online to explain the statue’s background.

This statue, installed in 1996, is not a specific person but represents all women who worked in East County canneries. The figure was the idea of a group of residents called the Friends of the Cannery Workers. The committee wanted to make a monument that honors cannery workers’ contribution.

The bronze statue by international artist Elizabeth MacQueen features an 8-foot-tall woman dressed in an outfit circa 1930-1950 that is similar to a nurse’s uniform worn by the cannery workers from that era. On her arm she carries a tray with tomatoes and asparagus. At her feet are empty cans and a packing box. MacQueen says she remembers creating the statue all those years ago and the controversy of putting her first clay sketch together.

“I spent a lot of time in the library going over the different styles and information about cannery workers,” she said.

At the time, there was no widely available Internet, so pushing a few keys and having hundreds of pictures pop up on a screen was not as simple as today.

“The committee [eventually] sent me a uniform of what the cannery workers looked like from the area,” she said.

Perhaps what MacQueen remembers most is working with the committee, especially one woman named Helen Meagher. She remembers Meagher as the “best and the greatest.”

“Helen explained how these women were proud and heroic, and that is what the committee wanted it [the statue] to represent,” MacQueen said.

MacQueen said this statue was one of the first public art pieces to represent the everyday woman.

“These women had no role models. Their life was going by braille,” she said.

Shortly after the piece was completed, Meagher passed away, and MacQueen dedicated this statue to her and all the work she did to help make the statue what the committee and the people of East Contra Costa County wanted.

During the era, the statue represents East County’s many acres of farm fields that supplied two canneries. One of the canneries was called Western California Canners, later known as Tillie Lewis Foods, and the second was Hickmott Canning Company, also known as Hickmott Foods.

Between the two, located adjacent to the railroad, was the Santa Fe Packing Shed, where vegetables like asparagus were packed and shipped to all areas of the country by the Santa Fe Railroad. With the plentiful fishing on the Delta, Pittsburg offered a few fish canneries, the most renowned being F.E. Booth Canning Company.

During this period, the cannery workers were mostly women looking for seasonal work. While the canneries are now gone, when the statue was being planned for the Antioch waterfront, the closures were still recent enough that many cannery workers were still around to be part of the discussion about what the Cannery Lady should look like. A plaque on the statue’s base tells a brief history and a message from the committee.

“The Cannery Lady statue demonstrates our pride in, and recognition of, the contributions made by our earlier residents, the workers of East County.”

Roni Gehlke can be reached at oakleynow@comcast.net.