Save the Chief

We are the Save the Chief Committee in St. Germain, Wisconsin.

The towering statue of Chief St. Germain stands at the front of the St. Germain Chamber of Commerce at the junction of highways 70 and 155. He has been a favorite family photo opportunity while visiting the North Woods. Now the Chief needs a facelift.

The Chief is in need of fiberglass repairs and repainting. The base he stands on needs repairs. We are asking for $25,000 to fund the refurbishing and the removal and transport to and from the restorer. We also have ideas for landscaping around the area.

There never actually was a Chief St. Germain. In the 17th century French Canadiens came to Wisconsin and built French posts. Fur traders came to the area hearing tales of vast amounts of furs. The traders were heavily regulated by the French government.

According to historian Ken Jackson and his book, “Vintage St. Germain, Vol. 1,” unlicensed traders went underground and traded with Native Americans. Although ordered to return home, one soldier, Jean Francois St. Germaine stayed behind, marrying an indigenous maiden and becoming part of her tribe.

Although not much history includes the name St. Germaine, later in the 19th century it reappears within the Lac du Flambeau band. Lore has it Big St. Germain was named for a beautiful princess whose tribe camped on the shores of the lake.

The town’s name was originally Lakewood, in 1930 the name was changed to St. Germain.

Local resort owner and chamber board member Larry Chamberlain reports Neal Long, a Plum Lake native, was the artist behind the original statue. Carving the piece out of wood based on a small carving he had made, he asked friend and brother-in-law Bill Maines to pose for the statue.

Long was noted to say about the Chief, “I carved it of 6-foot-by-6-foot timbers and then we covered it with metal mesh and put on waterproof concrete to preserve it.” Long is also the artist who painted the “Mus-ski Mountain” mural on the wall of the Sayner Pub.

After years of weathering, the wooden statue needed repair. In the late 1990s – early 2000s, a fiberglass cast was made of the statue and painted by “Painter Bob,” and unidentified local artist who no longer lives in the area according to Chamberlain. Attempts to find the company and information about the refurbished Chief were unsuccessful.

Now the base of the statue is failing and the fiberglass is in need of repair. A committee has been formed to organize and fundraise to raise monies to have the statue revamped. The statue will be taken down and sent to a fiberglass repair shop. The statue will then be repainted. In the meantime, the base will be repaired for the replacement of the statue.

The committee would like to have signage to explain the story of the Chief, repair the base and landscape the area around him.

We need your help to raise awareness and money to make the Chief “new” again. If the committee raises more than the $25,000 for the repairs required, they would like to continue landscaping the area and there are other projects at that location too!