Fred Smith Education Resources

Fred Smith grew up in Ogema, Wisconsin. As an adult, he worked in area lumber camps with horses and hand-operated tools. He also grew Christmas trees and ginseng to help support his family. At age sixty-two, after his retirement, he began building bas-relief plaques and sculptures near the tavern he owned, the Rock Garden Tavern, in Phillips, Wisconsin. He would eventually create 237 concrete and mixed-media sculptures. The art environment is known today as Wisconsin Concrete Park.

The sculptures have armatures of wood, steel pipe, and wire covered with concrete, embellished with materials Smith salvaged, including brown beer bottle pieces, mirror shards, reflectors, colored glass, rocks, and other materials. Many of the sculptures show the history of Northern Wisconsin, told through representations of people, animals, tales, and events that impacted the area. He stated, “Nobody knows why I made them, not even me. This work just came to me naturally. I started one day in 1948 and have been doing a few a year ever since.”