Address: Holcombe Town Hall Park
The Holcombe Indian was known to river men along the Chippewa since 1876. Called the King of the Chippewa River, he stood guard on the old Holcombe (Little Falls) Dam. He was a most welcome sight to loggers driving their logs down the river to be sawed into lumber at the local mill or held and sluiced through the logway in the dam to be cut at the big mills at Chippewa Falls or Eau Claire.
The Indian brave was created by Luke Lyons using an axe, draw shave, and a pocket knife. Lyons, a former sailor, was a straw boss employed by the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company. He carved the Indian straight, impressive, and nearly eight feet tall from a carefully selected white pine log cut by Jene Juvette near Pine Lake, just north of Holcombe.
During a flood in 1881, the Holcombe Indian was dislodged, fell over the falls, and went down the rapids to Jim Falls, where he was rescued. He was repaired and returned to the Holcombe Dam site, where he remained until the dam was abandoned and a modern hydroelectric power plant was built. As a symbol through the years, the brave has been the guardian spirit of loggers and the mighty Chippewa River.