The case of the missing elk statue

Reading about a missing elk statue this week reminded me of a pair of life-sized sculptures I photographed in 2008. Known collectively as “Athletes of Race,” it depicted a Native American horseman and a “modern” jockey racing side-by-side in the empty lot that was once the Garden State Park racetrack in Cherry Hill (it closed in 2001).

A few months after I first stumbled across the two figures behind some piles of rubble and demolition debris, I learned one of the bronzes was stolen, and found by police at a scrapyard. The thousand pound Native American half of the statue created by A. Thomas Schomberg, the Rocky statue sculptor, had been chopped up into hundreds of tiny pieces. It was never reconstructed.

So when I read a social media post on Monday by Matt Skoufalos at his NJ PEN newsletter about a missing elk statue in Camden’s historic Harleigh Cemetery, I was immediately fascinated and had to go investigate — and make photos of my own.

First I wanted to see what the statue looked like, which in 2026 means googling. There are dozens of “Elks Rest” memorial areas in cemeteries all around the country reserved for deceased members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).

The local lodges of the fraternal group founded in 1866 purchased plots for members to be buried next to their Departed Brothers, often marking them with a statue of an elk perched on a stone base inscribed with the order’s four cardinal virtues: Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love, and Fidelity.

In many lodges, anyone who could not afford a burial were provided space in the “Rest” free of charge.

The only two such memorials around Philadelphia are the one in Camden and another at the Mount Moriah cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the elk there was stolen decades ago.

But I still wanted to see — and photograph — an elk statue in person. I have long been intrigued by how late-19th and early-20th-century Americans socialized through fraternal orders and clubs, and over the years I’ve learned about the Odd Fellows, Moose, Knights of Pythias, and Redmen. I’ve also encountered many of their former lodges, halls, and temples as they faded away. I recalled passing some with statues in front, so more googling brought me to Elks Lodge #2514 in Marlton, N.J.

I got lucky and pulled into the parking lot as George “GT” Tencza with the NJ State Elks National Veterans Service Commission was getting ready to leave. Not only did he tell me their lodge’s elk statue was just dedicated in 2025, but years before they raised funds to erect the Harleigh Cemetery elk statue after the original — possibly an Eli Harvey sculpture — was stolen decades earlier. So it turns out the current missing elk was actually a replacement.

So, I drove to Camden. Harleigh dates back to the Victorian-era and is known for its most notable burial: the poet Walt Whitman, who designed his own granite mausoleum.

As I walked, I met hospital workers from nearby Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes who often enjoy the serenity and tranquility of the shaded paths. But they had never noticed the elk before. Derrick Moore, working on reconstruction at the same hospital has walked by the Elks Rest every day for the last month and tells me he certainly would’ve noticed an elk statue. The mystery, and my adventure, deepened as I wondered how long ago the statue might’ve been stolen.

I walked into the cemetery office and asked about the elk.

“It was not stolen. We have it in the shop,” an employee told me.

Of course I asked if I could see it, but he said it was locked up. More questions followed. So the Facebook post is wrong? It’s not stolen? What happened to it? When did it go missing? Did you recover it? Is it all there? Can it be salvaged?

“I can’t say anything else. Why do you care?”

At that point, there wasn’t much I could do. But I had talked with my colleague, reporter Nick Vadala, who had been calling around and later even reached the same man in the cemetery office — who also wouldn’t talk to him.

Nick did learn that authorities are searching for a man who they say cut down the large bronze elk statue in March and stole its legs.

Cemetery workers reported the theft to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office on March 30, indicating it had occurred March 3, according to County spokesperson Dan Keashen. The case was then transferred to Camden Metro Police, who launched an investigation that remains ongoing.

They have identified a suspect, Keashen said, but he remains at large. Believed to be experiencing homelessness, he has been charged with third-degree counts of burglary, theft, and criminal mischief.

The statue’s legs have not yet been located, but a majority of the monument is in the cemetery’s possession, Keashen said.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact Camden Police’s tip line at 865-757-7400, or submit tips through the STOPit app.

Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: