#28,... Wisconsin Concrete Park!

http://www.friendsoffredsmith.org/ Wisconsin Concrete Park is located on hwy 13 about 1 mile south of Phillips Wisconsin! There is no fee for this attraction!

This info was from the Friends of Fred Smith website!
I have provided a link to this website above!

Fred Smith was born in 1886 to first generation German immigrants to Price County. He built his house, barn, and tavern on property he homesteaded in Phillips in 1903. Smith worked in regional lumber camps from his early teens until 1948. Although it is assumed that he retired due to his arthritis, his long days of rigorous physical work were far from over. Smith became an artist. At that time he began to build bas relief plaques and sculptures in the vicinity of his tavern, the Rock Garden Tavern. Smith's work evolved from two dimensional into three-dimensional sculptures and tableaux, which he built on an ambitious scale throughout his property.

Lacking formal training in art or art history, Smith was nevertheless moved by a strong and sustained personal vision that compelled him to animate his landscape with images from his life and imagination. Smith was not merely decorating his yard; his sculpture, sited intentionally within familiar terrain, took the form of an ingenious spatial narrative. Of this he said:



Smith's chosen medium was concrete. He ornamented early works with painted scenes and bas-relief glass embellishments, and created high-relief decorated surfaces, using glass (bottles, flat colored pieces, insulators), auto-reflectors, mirrors, and other found objects. Smith used an expressionistic style to capture the strong features of the various European immigrants to the region (Czech, Bohemian, Swedish, Finnish, German, Norwegian, and Polish). Their portraits have an uncannyaccuracy and an evocative sense of authenticity. The tableaux unfold immigrant histories and their impact on the land, from the lumberjacks that cut down the forests, to the 'stump farmers' who cleared the land for farming, and the farmers themselves, working with horses and oxen.

Interspersed throughout, the common people were engaged in daily activities: working, observing other people at work, watching a deer fight, sweethearts seated on a rock, a photographer, a beer drinker. Smith spent much of his life outdoors and expressed his strong affinity with wildlife in sculptures of deer, elk, moose, bear, and birds. For Smith, as for many visual artists, the exact sources of motivation were elusive. He said '




Smith focused his energy on its creation until he suffered a stroke in 1964, and was unable to continue. Fred Smith died in 1976.

To view vintage images of the site in Smith's time, click on the thumbnails below.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• wisconsin
• concrete
• park
• cement
• statue
• glass
• phillips

[DAWL01]

puts Phillips on the map along with Sebring Lake...otherwise Park Falls would get all the attention lol:) nice choice of music on this one my friend

[IntoWisOutdoors]

@DAWL01 Thank You! I've always been fond of this place ever since my 1st visit as a child!

[CDNcatskinner]

Folk art or what!

[IntoWisOutdoors]

@CDNcatskinner LOL! Actually, A former lumberjack of the early 1900's did all of this after he had to retire! He opened up a bar & decided to make all of this! My 1st visit was way back in the early 70's after a bad storm rolled thru! We were visiting our relatives in Ladysmith Wi. at the time! I'll see about getting a video link posted to another video here on youtube about the true history of this! Much of the glass is now missing from these works of art. But is still very nice to stop & see!

[mzpennee]

Ken,

This is truly a magnificent place, I had ZERO idea it was even there. Isn't Phillips near the Ottawa National Forest ?.? Whomever took the time to create such a masterpiece had preservation of history at heart ♥ ♥

Thank you for taking your time to not only go there to visit, but allow us to go there with you!!

Another stellar video you put together!! Thanks so much for sharing it!!!

[IntoWisOutdoors]

@mzpennee Yup! It's right along the highway just south of Phillips! That would be near the Chequamegon Natl. Forest & Flambeu River State Forest!

I'm realy having fun making these videos! I'm not interested in making money on YT with these,.... It's all about having fun to me!

[IntoWisOutdoors]

@crazyfarm31 Thank You Janet!

[crazyfarm31]

awesome!!!!

[internationalRLfan]

Wow it must have taken a long time to build the sculptures.