Marshall Fredericks, a renowned Michigan sculptor, agreed to create the figure of Christ for the Cross. The process took four years from sketches to plaster mold. The figure was then cast in bronze at the Kristians-Kunst Metalstobori Foundry in Oslo, Norway. Weighing seven tons and tall from head to toe, it was one of the largest castings to ever be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. Workers raised the sculpture into place August 9, 1959, and attached to the Cross with 13 bolts long and in diameter. The formal dedication occurred seven days later.