Black Hawk Statue

Lorado Taft's concrete figure looks out over the Rock River from a bluff in Lowden State Park, near Oregon, Illinois. The Illinois Department of Transportation described it in June 2026 as a nearly 50-foot statue on a 125-foot bluff, a tribute to Native Americans and Black Hawk. ABC7 Chicago reported that Taft named it The Eternal Indian in 1911 but that it is more commonly known as Black Hawk, after the chief of the Sauk and Fox. Enjoy Illinois, the state tourism office, says it does not represent any one man but is a tribute to all Native Americans, especially those who lived along the Rock River; the Illinois DNR likewise calls it a tribute to all Native Americans, though more commonly associated with Black Hawk. Enjoy Illinois says Taft worked with the sculptor John Prasuhn, who had experience with concrete, and that workers began pouring on 20 December 1910, continuing day and night for 10 days. Height is given as 48 feet by ABC7 and Enjoy Illinois and as 50 feet by the DNR. After more than a century of freeze and thaw, a restoration was under way: ABC7 reported in December 2019 that both arms had been replaced, the head repaired and much of the decayed concrete skin replaced, with a target of finishing that month. The DNR park page carries a notice that work on the statue is ongoing. The DNR says the best view of the statue is from Illinois Route 2, and IDOT reported in June 2026 that a new ADA-compliant viewer had been installed at a scenic turnout.