Fred Smith, Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, WI

The Site

Fred Smith’s Wisconsin Concrete Park consists of 230 life-size and larger-than-life-size concrete sculptures on his former property in Phillips, Wisconsin. His sculptures have armatures of wood, steel pipe, and wire covered with concrete and are embellished with salvaged materials such as beer bottle pieces, mirror shards, reflectors, colored glass, and rocks. Many depict aspects of northern Wisconsin history, told through representations of people, animals, folktales, and events that impacted the area. Included among the life-size figures are Paul Bunyan, Ben Hur, and Sacajawea. His final and most ambitious piece was a Budweiser wagon with drivers and a team of Clydesdale horses.

The Wisconsin Concrete Park is now a Price County park, managed by the nonprofit Friends of Fred Smith. Located along Highway 13 in Phillips, Wisconsin, the park is open to the public.

Fred Smith

1886–1976

Fred Smith was born in 1886 to German immigrants in Spirit, Wisconsin, and he homesteaded land in nearby Phillips, where he built a house and raised his family. Smith farmed Christmas trees and ginseng root, and he worked in regional lumber camps until retiring in 1948. He was also an avid musician and loved regaling people with his fiddle and mandolin. Smith had little formal schooling, but that did not deter him from creating a monumental artistic project.

Beginning in 1948, Smith created over 230 sculptures around his home and the Rock Garden Tavern, a bar he built and operated on his property. Smith ceased work on the property, known as the Wisconsin Concrete Park, after he was disabled by a stroke in 1964. Shortly after he died in 1976, the park was acquired by Kohler Foundation, Inc., and preserved. Wisconsin Concrete Park, part of the Price County park system, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today the Arts Center’s collection includes ten sculptures by Smith, including several small relief sculptures from his Rock Garden Tavern.