Wisconsin Life

Wisconsin Concrete Park

– The following program is a PBS Wisconsin Original Production.

– Coming up on Wisconsin Life: [shimmery music] We meet a family of water skiers making waves, [skiers cheer] A fashion designer infusing her culture into clothing… A group fostering folk art for future generations, [children laughing] and a golfer teeing up for a world record attempt.

[whoosh, metallic bing] That’s all ahead on Wisconsin Life!

[uplifting guitars, strings, piano, and drums] – Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Mary and Lowell Peterson, the A.C.V.

and Mary Elston Family, the Obrodovich Family Foundation, the Stanley J. Cottrill Fund, Alliant Energy, UW Health, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

– Hello there, and welcome to Wisconsin Life!

I’m your host, Angela Fitzgerald.

We’ve stopped off to explore Wisconsin Concrete Park, a roadside museum celebrating the artistic creations of Fred Smith.

Anyone traveling through Northern Wisconsin has probably driven past this eye-catching park off Highway 13 in Phillips.

[quirky, optimistic swing music] Fred Smith, a retired lumberjack with no formal art training, created more than 230 handmade sculptures made of cement, glass, and other mixed media.

Some of the statues have familiar faces, while others honor the culture and wildlife found throughout the Northwoods.

Shortly after Fred’s death, the Kohler Foundation bought and restored the park before gifting it to Price County, who now maintains the park in partnership with the nonprofit, Friends of Fred Smith.

The tavern next door, now run by the nonprofit, was originally built by Fred and still welcomes guests to raise a drink… – Group: Here’s to Fred Smith!

– …to honor the life of this ambitious artist.

We’ll learn more about what it takes to preserve these sculptures in a place where concrete’s worst nemesis– water and ice– is abundant.

[shimmery music] But first, we suit up to join a Wisconsin Rapids family making waves across the globe.

[electronic dance music] Wisconsin has more water ski show teams than anywhere else on the planet.

– Dan Dix: We’ve got the best darn tournament site here in the world.

– Every summer, Dan and Amber Dix help welcome 26 teams from across the state to Red Sands Beach on Lake Wazeecha.

[cheers and applause] – Dan: It’s pretty heavy-duty competition there.

You’ll see a lot of neat stuff, for sure.

– Big risks… [ski smacks water] …can lead to big scores… [crowd cheering] …or even bigger fails.

[crowd groaning] – Dan: All right, we’re gonna bring in the rest of our team.

– Dan brings the voice as team announcer for the Wisconsin Rapids Aqua Skiers.

– Amber Dix: Jesse, Joe, Casey, Brennan, Reece.

– Amber is the team show director.

– Amber: You guys know your patterns.

You’re just doing the same thing for jump, right?

I put it all together to run as smooth as possible.

[laughing] – One, two, three… – Aqua Skiers!

[cheers and applause] – Amber and Dan’s decades-long love affair with skiing… [laughing] – Well, she was on the ski team when we met.

– …has now become a family affair.

– Dan: All three of our kids started off skiing before they were two.

– Alexis Dix: So, it’s just been in my blood.

I’ve skied my whole life.

– Announcer: Alexis.

– Daughter Alexis is a third-generation Aqua Skier.

– She is one of the most competitive skiers you can get out there.

– Alexis Dix: Our show consists of 13 acts, and I’m in 9 of them.

– She loves to compete.

– Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Alexis Dix.

– Amber: She loves to ski outside of the box.

– Her brother Colby also gets in on the action.

– Announcer: Let’s bring in Colby.

– Colby Dix: I trick ski, jump, barefoot, and conventionals.

Me and Alexis get hot-picked.

We do a slider off the dock.

– Dan Dix: All right, let’s do the hot pick.

[cheers and applause] – Colby: And then, we do a five-person jump.

[cheers and applause] [smack] – Announcer: … sticking it!

– Amber: Colby, he is shy.

He’s quiet.

– Colby: I don’t know.

I’m always nervous for state.

– He does what he does naturally, and it’s not hard for him.

– What is hard… – Dan Dix: We miss you.

We love you.

– Angela: For the first time in 21 years, one member of the Dix Family isn’t here for the championships.

– Faith: Hi!

– Dan: Hello, sweetie.

– Alexis: Hello!

– Bet it’s hard not being here for state.

– Faith: Oh, my gosh, it’s so hard.

– Amber: Yeah.

– Faith Dix: Miss you.

– Amber: Yeah, I miss you, too.

– Angela: Faith couldn’t be here because halfway around the world… [upbeat music] She’s showing off her high-flying skiing skills along Australia’s Gold Coast.

– Faith: I am currently skiing at SeaWorld in the Thunder Lake Stunt Show.

It’s one of the only professional shows left in the world.

There’s one in Florida, one in Texas, and one in Australia.

– Dan Dix: She’s a showperson.

The smile is always there, and you need that for a crowd.

[water resistance] [cheers and applause] – Whoo!

– Yeah!

– Amber: She loves it, absolutely loves it.

[bird squawking] – Faith also loves coming home to train… [motorboat rumbling] …where skiing at sunrise allows her to carve the water with bare feet and fierce determination.

– Alexis: Watching her skiing is phenomenal, and you’re just like, “Wow!”

[upbeat music] – Faith works to perfect this trick called a “backflyer.”

[splash] And she works at it time… [multiple splashes] …and time again.

– Amber: The falls you take and the punishment your body takes to get up and keep going, it takes a special breed of these kids.

– Faith is that rare breed and made the USA Elite Barefoot Team.

– Faith: For Barefoot Team USA, there was only eight of us.

I’d only really competed for, like, a year and two months before heading to Worlds, so that was crazy.

[water and wind resistance] – Angela: But practice propelled her… – Australian Announcer: Faith Dix comes in over the ramp, holds on!

– To the Under-23 World Championships.

– Amber: That experience would be like if you’re watching the Olympics and they pan to the family in the crowd, it’s the exact same thing.

You hold your breath.

Your stomach’s full of butterflies.

– Faith Dix: After my first round, that’s when I was the most nervous.

– Amber: It was her final run, and it was just like, “Okay, if she makes this, she’s gonna podium.”

And I was on the dock, and I had to leave.

[laughing] I’m like, “I can’t watch.”

– Dan Dix: Yeah.

She couldn’t watch a couple of them.

Just waiting for the crowd reaction…

If you hear the cheers, you know they did good.

– Australian Announcer: In first place, Faith Dix!

[cheers and applause] – Dan: This is just going beyond all expectations.

– Wisconsin’s Faith Dix had just won the 2023 Barefoot World Championship.

– Faith: I won the overall, as well as won the slalom, and won jump, and I got third in tricks.

– Dan: To be able to pull that off, she made the finals of five out of six events, so it’s pretty unheard of, really.

That’s why they picked her to be on Team USA.

– Faith: I still feel like it’s such a small sport.

It’s not super crazy, but within the sport, it’s pretty exciting.

– Amber: As a mom, I always knew she could do her goals.

I just never knew how high they actually would be.

[motorboat rumbles, music] – And there’s no telling how high Alexis and Colby will go either.

Faith will make sure of that.

– I want to be able to show them that they can do anything that they put their mind to.

– Dan: This is Colby and Alexis.

– Faith: But I also don’t want them to get discouraged and think that they’re in my shadow ’cause I don’t want them to be.

– And to imagine their family and love for skiing all started here.

– Amber: When you see what they can do together in one family, to me, that’s a huge blessing.

It’s a very neat experience for them.

[shimmery music] – Our next story takes us to Stevens Point to meet a fashion designer weaving together her culture and community.

[rhythmic rubab] – Art is like an international language.

I choose this fashion industry just to enhance my culture, my traditions, and I want to empower not just women in Afghanistan, but across the world.

I’m Sarwat Najib.

I’m a graphic designer, I’m a fashion designer, and I’m a woman advocate.

I founded my own Atelier fashion design outlet in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, 50 years of war, mostly women are not educated.

There were a lot of women, they came to my factory, and they told me that we are not allowed to go outside and work.

What about us?

You are empowering women and we need your help.

So then, I decided to give them projects, home-based embroideries.

There are a lot of different embroidery techniques, so I use them into different, like, a contemporary style.

I draw sketches by myself.

Usually, I sketch illustrations on my sketchbook.

From fashion, my inspiration is nature.

I designed a fish mermaid dress and it was like a hand embroidery.

It was a 50-meter tulle, a big train, and it was, like, my last design.

I never showcased that, and Kabul collapsed that time.

We were in the factory, we were working there, and we have a news that Taliban are, they– they– they are just taking over the Kabul.

And it was so fearful that they, we all… we even never hugged each other.

The scissors were on the table and the cloth was, and the fabric was there and everything.

And even my pattern master, she decided to cover the fabric because she said, “This is expensive fabric.

I don’t know when we will come again.”

[voice quivering] We never go again.

So, we never went back, we scattered.

After that, we call each other, “Where are you?

Are you safe?”

So, I can say if your home, like, unfortunately, caught fire, what would you do?

So, you can go, leave everything, right?

So, this happened to us.

[tense piano and woodwind] Taliban came to our Atelier.

They destroyed everything.

They destroyed everything just because we are doing a Western fashion.

They think we are pro-Americans.

So, they destroy even the, like, mannequins and because it’s a female figure-type sculptures.

So, it was a big loss for us.

[sorrowful ney flute] I must say that 50 years of war, if it happens to a mountain, it would be collapsed.

If you hit a mountain for 50 years, it would be smashed.

But I must say the people of Afghan– Afghan people are so brave.

They are like seeds.

Like, even if they are buried, they again grow.

[funky and jazzy rubab melody] When I came to Wisconsin, I started my work with the local people.

And now, I want to set a good example for my generation, my other generation, other people.

Then they came and they think that after migration, they people were disheartened and they stopped.

I want to send them a message.

Don’t stop!

It’s a phase.

It’s a phase of life.

If you are alive, you can do more, more and more.

And you are in a good place.

I am happy that I’m here.

I’m safe.

And I am happy in the community here.

This is the platform that I can raise my voice for my Afghan women.

[shimmery music] – I’ve cemented myself into Wisconsin Concrete Park while delving into the conservation work being done to preserve this quirky part of Wisconsin’s history.

I started my visit in the tavern Fred Smith built to chat with Ann Grzywnowicz, Operations Manager of the Friends of Fred Smith, to uncover what’s so special about this county park.

– Ann Grzywnowicz: I think what makes it the most special is that all of the statues were created by one artist, Fred Smith, and he created them all over a 16-year period, and so he was working very hard throughout those 16 years.

He was very inspired.

– And what types of, I guess, objects are featured in the park?

– He kind of took inspiration from many different areas.

He really liked to focus on some of the local people around, but also figures of national importance.

So, there’s a Paul Bunyan, Abe Lincoln.

There’s a plaque that has a Statue of Liberty on it.

He really honored and respected the Native American community, so there’s several Native American statues.

– Awesome, and art conservation is a big component here.

– Yes, it is very crucial that we preserve the statues because of the harsh Wisconsin winters, the weather, and just having concrete statues outside is not the ideal location.

We have to hire two professionals that come and do the main repairs, which is the stability issues to make sure that the limbs aren’t falling off the statues, that none of them are falling down, because that does happen.

– So, I went to see that conservation work in action, meeting Ben Caguioa, a member of the team working to keep the statues standing.

– Hi, Ben.

– Ben Caguioa: Oh, hi.

– What are you working on?

– I’m working on a blown-out ankle on this sculpture.

I’ve already welded some stainless steel to the original armature, and now, I’m in the process of replacing all these broken pieces off.

So I’ve just mixed up some marine-grade epoxy, and I’ll be gluing in the pieces kind of like a puzzle.

– Can you show us a little bit of what that looks like?

– Ben Caguioa: Yeah!

So, right now, I’m just kind of pre-fitting them to make sure that I can get them all into position, and this is more to figure out the order in which I need to glue things.

And I think I’m in a good spot.

So now, this is ready for me to put some adhesive on so I could permanently glue it in place.

– So, it’s literally like putting a puzzle together.

– The most important part is not locking a piece out.

I was an art major in college, and then, I decided I needed a little steadier income.

[laughs] – Angela: That would be a driver.

It literally also feels like you’re helping to preserve history.

[carefree banjo and guitar] Wow, it looks like it’s back to its original form.

– Ben Caguioa: Thank you.

[laughter] – Angela: It’s been an exciting look into art restoration while touring Fred Smith’s concrete creations.

[sunny banjo and guitar] [shimmery music] We continue exploring folk art in Wisconsin as we head to Hollandale to catch up with a group preserving the past while cultivating creativity for the future.

– Marilyn Rolfsmeyer: The more you look at it, the more you think, “Wow, what was he trying to tell us?”

This can be the place that allows you to choose what you want it to become.

That spirit of permission to make art out of whatever has been granted here, and we’re running with it.

[children cracking up with laughter] – Teacher: Just let your imagination run wild.

Play around with it a little bit.

– Rick Rolfsmeyer: We’re at Grandview, the historic home of Nick and Katherine Engelbert.

He built statues in the yard.

She built beautiful complementary gardens.

He wasn’t a trained artist, but I think he really enjoyed what art did for other people.

– Marilyn: What do you think about this one?

– Girl: It reminds me of Shrek.

[laughter] – Most people refer to me as “that Grandview lady.”

I was an art teacher, and I saw the worth in it.

– Rick: We have a very small school district.

We have one and a half art teachers that serve kids from four counties.

– Marilyn: So, we thought, “Let’s let the kids be part of this.

Let’s do a class.”

And it just grew from that one class to as many as 32 classes each summer.

There’s something about this site.

It is inspiring.

It is enabling.

And we’re an outdoor venue that can’t be met by any other place.

[polka music] – Rick: Nick and Katherine were both immigrants.

Nick from Austria, Katherine from Switzerland.

And they were looking for a new place where they could be themselves.

And it was a way that they celebrated being Americans.

– Marilyn: One of my favorite has to be Uncle Sam.

Why is it an elephant and a donkey?

– Youngster: Democrats and Republicans.

– That’s right!

– Rick: The little sign that Nick built said something to the effect of, “It’s hard to get a day’s work done with a team like this.”

That’s the kind of humor Nick would inject into things, and that’s whimsy.

– Art Teacher: We’re improvising just like Nick did all the time here.

If Nick can create art and have it be appreciated and valued, what about me?

Why can’t I do that, too?

– You get to express your creativity and no one’s judging you.

– That’s right.

– Teacher: There’s some amazing noses.

We have some big honkers.

– Student: Is that a cute little nose right there?

– Marilyn: Grandview is a classroom, but at the same time… it’s a museum, it’s a park, it’s a place for lemonade and cookies.

– Teacher: Cookies and chocolate milk and lemonade.

– Student: You’re gonna throw that over my head?

– Girls: One, two, three, rah!

– Marilyn: The kids understand that it’s not outsiders who run it or own it.

They do.

It’s our community, our place.

– Roar!

– Marilyn: They can weed it.

They can come up and help plant flowers.

– Girl: Look it, we can see the lion!

– Students: Whoo!

– Marilyn: It’s part of their home.

They are a part of shaping it.

I think Nick Engelbert would have been pretty pleased and astonished to know so many people are still interested in this site, that it still has its charm and beauty and magic.

[shimmery music] – Our final story takes us to a Mount Horeb golf course as we cart around with a long-time golfer teeing off at a record pace.

Angela: Tee off at Norsk Golf Club in Mount Horeb and there’s a good chance of crossing cart paths with Nolan Krentz.

– Nolan Krentz: When I was six or seven, Mom got us into junior lessons out here, and basically been playing out here ever since, 25 years or so.

– He’s the Mount Horeb High School golf coach, but he also spends most of his free time in the fairway.

[whoosh, clank] Get up there.

I play all seasons.

I mean, I’ll play basically February to December.

– Angela: It’s safe to say Nolan plays a lot of golf.

A lot of golf… [powerful swings] – Nolan: 250, 275 days of the year probably, I’m stepping foot on a golf course, yep.

– A few years ago, he set a goal, [magical sparkle] play 10,000 holes in a year.

His drive only increased from there.

[whoosh, metallic plink] – You know, if you got 10,000 holes one year, your goal is to get 10,001 the next year.

[club pings ball, ball rattles in hole] – 10,000 [magical sparkle] led to 12,000.

Then, during the pandemic, he already had the perfect hobby to pass the time.

He played more than 17,000 holes in both 2020 and 2021.

– And then, it got to be where I really wanted to get to 18,000 that year in 2022.

[gentle clack] – Angela: 18,000 holes.

That’s almost 50 holes a day.

But this is Wisconsin, and to make up for all the time lost to the weather, Nolan often played 72 holes a day.

– Definitely not going full out on every swing.

You’re kind of, you know, saving yourself, saving energy.

I’m not maxed going out all the time, so that helps me hit the ball a little straighter.

[high-pitched metallic bing] – It also helps that he’s a good player and he plays fast.

[hits ball hard] – All right.

– It takes him about 45 minutes to play the nine-hole course.

He never has to think long about his next shot.

– Nolan: More than likely or not, I’ve been there before.

Maybe even that day I’ve been in that spot.

That’s why I’m able to pick a club so quickly, and basically, just hit a shot from there.

[quick hit] – Angela: Why does he do this?

It provides peace, quiet, and focus.

– Yeah, I think for me it’s, you know, some sort of self-fulfillment.

You know, you have a couple hours where you are just, you’re in your own, you know, you’re focused just on what you’re doing.

Oh, we did get her.

– The Wisconsin State Golf Association presents Nolan Krentz with this… – That’s why, in 2022, he set an unofficial world record for number of golf holes played in a single year.

– Nolan: 18,018.

So, it’s a good number to finish on and remember.

18,018.

[thwack] – Nolan’s still busy chasing birdies, but these days, coaching and teaching take more of his time.

So, for now, a bigger number will have to wait.

Until then, the sight of Nolan walking around Norsk will always be par for the course.

– Nolan: I think it’s definitely, safe to say, it’s definitely a passion, definitely a driving force, an integral part of my life on a day-to-day basis.

So, yeah, kind of a theme every year, basically, is play until snow is on the ground.

[metallic clink] [shimmery music] – Well, I can check another Wisconsin must-see destination from my bucket list.

To learn more about Wisconsin Concrete Park or any of the stories seen today, visit WisconsinLife.org or connect with us on social media or by emailing [email protected].

As Fred Smith would say, “It’s gotta be in ya to do it.”

I’m your host, Angela Fitzgerald, and this is our Wisconsin Life.

Bye!

[uplifting guitars, strings, piano, and drums] – Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Mary and Lowell Peterson, the A.C.V.

and Mary Elston Family, the Obrodovich Family Foundation, the Stanley J. Cottrill Fund, Alliant Energy, UW Health, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.