YARNELL, Ariz. – Barney Wasson’s ashes were laid to rest next to his parents and brother at the Shrine of St. Joseph of the Mountains, which they built on their land in Yarnell 74 years ago.
His friends and family each repeated a similar phrase, that he left this Earth a better place than he found it 84 years ago when he was born in the heart of Phoenix.
The Wasson family moved to Yarnell to build the shrine when Barney was 9 years old, clearing the brush and rocks and creating spaces for the Stations of the Cross that have brought peace to thousands of visitors over the decades.
“It’s been an important part of my life,” Barney told The Daily Courier in November. “It has helped a lot of people in their lives.”
Wasson died Feb. 19. He leaves his wife Maria-Luisa, his three sons and their families to rebuild the structures at the shrine after the devastating Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30, 2013.
“God willing, the shrine will continue for 75 years,” Maria-Luisa said. “He will be there in spirit.”
Barney was inspired to become a liturgical sculptor by liturgical sculptor Felix Lucero, as he watched Lucero create most of the statues at the shrine. Barney built Our Lady of Fatima at the shrine when he was only 16 years old.
Barney almost became a priest like his brother Bill, then decided to sculpt artwork for churches, his son Barnaby said.
“That was how he bore witness,” Barnaby said.
Barney went on to create sculptures at churches throughout the country, including his own Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Prescott. His sculptures at Sacred Heart and elsewhere were built alongside the structures themselves.
“Artwork is especially important in a church,” said Jana Kosco, who has attended Sacred Heart with the Wasson family for more than 40 years. “It helps us lift our hearts and minds to God.”
The Wassons continued to live on their family ranch next to the shrine until the wildfire swept through.
“It was so desolate. Everything was scorched earth,” said Barnaby, who was there with his brothers on June 30 trying to help save what they could.
Everything that remained on the ranch was literally incinerated. Eight buildings including the gift shop and retreat center structures were lost at the shrine, but the shrine itself lost only parts of two crosses.
TV helicopters often showed his father’s sculpture still standing while the fire was raging and residents were evacuated, Barnaby recalled.
The nondenominational shrine is the main tourist attraction in Yarnell, located about 30 miles south of Prescott. It survives entirely on donations. The 14 Stations of the Cross depict Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
After the fire, the shrine became especially important to the residents of Yarnell.
When people were allowed to return home to Yarnell after the fire, emergency workers told them to stay on their own property. But the shrine was an exception.
“A lot of people came to the shrine and just walked it, needing a place of comfort,” Barnaby said.
Barney and Maria-Luisa were reminded what the shrine meant to others. They moved into one of the buildings and went to work.
Although Barney was unable to physically help clean and rebuild the shrine because he never really recovered from a broken back a few years ago, he was there to oversee the work.
“They drew a tremendous amount of strength seeing most of the shrine survive, and that’s where their focus needed to be,” Barnaby said. “It’s the greater good.
“That was just inbred in my family: Leave the earth a little better than you found it.”
Friends saw the same thing in Barney.
“When I think of Barney, I think of a gentle soul, but he was strong in his faith and devoted to his family and work,” Kosco said.
