Chief Black Hawk Statue

This nine-foot figure on the shore of Black Hawk Lake honors the Sauk war leader Black Hawk, though the chief himself never set foot in this corner of northwest Iowa. He lived far to the southeast, in Illinois and along the lower Mississippi. Yet Sac County and this lake both carry his name, Sac being a variant of Sauk.

The Lake View Commercial Club commissioned the statue in nineteen thirty-two, sculpted by Harry Stinson under the New Deal art program led by the painter Grant Wood. It was dedicated on Labor Day, nineteen thirty-four, the same day the lake was renamed from Wall Lake to Black Hawk Lake. Made of white stone and Platte River sand, it now stands on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Smithsonian-affiliated outdoor sculpture register.