After undergoing six months of refurbishing, the historic Leif Erikson statue is back at the Shilshole Bay Marina where it belongs.

An unveiling is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m., followed by a reception at 4 p.m.

Crews installed the statue earlier this week in a new plaza, 200 feet north of its old location where it had stood since 1962.

Artist Jay Haavik and a crew from the art preservation group Arttech also put in a series of 13 basalt stones with Viking designed by Haavik. The stones will be installed in an oval plaza, which looks like the ancient footprint of a Viking ship.

Rune stones will have plaques with the names of immigrants who came to the U.S. from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark.

During the Oct. 7 ceremony, people from other parts of the county who have purchased names of relatives that are inscribed on the rune stones will take part.

"We know a lot of people are coming from Texas, California and Michigan," said Kristine Leander, a board member of the Leif Erikson International Foundation.

The rune stones will have the names of 800 Scandinavians inscribed on them. A temporary display will have 100 other names.

Eventually the Leif Erikson International Foundation hopes to have 1500 names permanently installed.

When the statue was first unveiled in 45 years ago, 3,000 people attended the event.

The re-installation of the four-ton, 16 foot tall statue, places it on lower base, closer to the ground. The base will be made of granite.

When the statue was removed this spring, a project expected to take a few hours, turned into a five day affair, as the statue resisted jack hammers, hydraulic jacks, roto-hammers, power saws and a huge crane.

The statue was first put on display at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Trygve Nakkerud, the president of the Leif Erikson League in 1962 played a key role in raising money to build and erect the statue.

As of last week, Leander had not seen the restored statue but heard it looks good.

"Everyone says it looks wonderful," Leander said.

The Leif Erikson International Foundation is still accepting names to inscribe on the rune stones at a cost of $125 each.

Contact: The Leif Erikson International Foundation, 2245 N.W. 57th St., Seattle, WA 98107 or visit http://www.leiferikson.org or call 783-1081.