Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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You wouldn't know it from looking at him, but the Independent Man takes a beating atop his Rhode Island State House perch. Recently, damage from lightning grounded the state's golden sentinel. But it was the statue's first flight that became a public spectacle 50 years ago. We're traveling back to the 1970s to watch the race to re-gild Rhode Island's most famous monument in time for the nation's Bicentennial.

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