Wisconsin Concrete Park

The Wisconsin Concrete Park is a sculpture park located along Wisconsin Highway 13 in the town of Phillips, Wisconsin, United States. The park includes over 200 folk art sculptures built with concrete and decorated with glass bottles and other found objects. Fred Smith, who ran the Rock Garden Tavern on the property, began building the sculptures in 1948 after retiring from his career as a lumberjack. Smith, who lacked any formal artistic education, initially built two-dimensional bas relief plaques and eventually transitioned to constructing his larger sculptures. Smith continued building sculptures until 1964, when a stroke forced him to stop working. Smith claimed that the sculptures "came to [him] naturally" and that "nobody knows why I made these sculptures, even me." The sculptures primarily feature people engaging in everyday activities, such as farming, watching workers, and drinking beer. Animals are also frequently depicted, both in the wild and helping with farm work. One sculpture, the last Smith completed before his stroke, features a team of Clydesdales pulling a Budweiser wagon. Historical and legendary figures such as Ben-Hur, Paul Bunyan, and Abraham Lincoln are also depicted. Smith was born in 1886 in Price County (the same county as his park) to German immigrants. Beginning in his early teens, he worked as a lumberjack. In 1903 he homesteaded the property whe

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