Hans Heg statue (Wind Lake WI)

Wisconsin Norwegians agreed that Hans Heg, who led his battalion before dying on a Civil War battlefield in Georgia typified the Norwegian-American hero. But where to erect the statue they wanted to commission to commemorate this man? 

The Racine faction wanted to create a Norwegian-American park here and make the Heg statue its centerpiece. Other Norwegians in Wisconsin wanted the Heg statue placed prominently on Madison’s capitol square. Funds were raised for a trio of Heg statues: one for his birthplace in Lier, Norway, one for Capitol Square and one on land in Muskego-Norway which became Racine County’s first county park.

The bronze statue of Colonel Hans Heg is located at the northern end of Heg Park at the triangular intersection of South Loomis and Heg Park Road. This statue honors the leader of the 15^th Wisconsin Volunteer regiment. Heg was the highest-ranking Wisconsinite who died in battle during the Civil War. He lost his life in the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia in 1863. The fearless regiment was ninety-percent Norwegian-born and had one of the Union’s highest casualty rates.

For three years leading up to the 1925 Norwegian American centennial celebration, Waldemar Ager, publisher of The Reform, a Norwegian prohibition newspaper in Eau Claire, raised funds throughout Wisconsin for the $20,000 needed for two identical Hans Heg statues. Norwegian-Wisconsinites who worked in Madison, public officials and University of Wisconsin professors of Norwegian ancestry lobbied for the Heg statue to be located on Madison’s capitol square.

The statue at Heg’s birthplace in Lier, Norway was installed first, on June 25, 1925, as part of the Norwegian-American centennial celebration. Installation of the second Heg statue was held up by red tape in Madison. There were delays in getting approval from Governor Blaine and the capitol architect to have the statue installed on capitol square. Getting the marble base from the Vermont quarry which supplied the state’s architectural marble delayed the project another year. Three of the last surviving veterans of the 15^th Wisconsin Volunteers were among the 1,500 people who witnessed the dedication ceremony on October 17, 1926.

Meanwhile, a Racine County committee, headed by Niels Bergan, worked to place an additional Heg statue at the site of the Town of Norway’s first schoolhouse. Sculptor Paul Fjelde provided casting of the third statue at cost. In 1924, Racine hosted Sons of Norway’s District 5 and international conventions. They bussed participants to Wind Lake to propose preserving Heg Park as a Norwegian-American historical site. Several hundred convention participants traveled from Racine to Wind Lake in a cavalcade of autos and busses. They toured the proposed Heg Park site and heard plans for the establishment of a Norwegian-American historical site. This trip was not a small feat considering the condition of roads a hundred years ago.

The Sons of Norway voted down the idea of creating Heg Park as a Sons of Norway venue. Bergan’s Heg Park Commission then worked to establish it as Racine County’s first public park. On July 4, 1928, 1,000 from Sons of Norway lodges in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois attended the Heg statue dedication at Muskego-Norway. Later that fall, due to the renewed public interest in Hans Heg, the Heg family donated some of his personal belongings and military artifacts to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Heg’s military dress sword is on display at the Heg Park museum.

In 2022, the Heg statue in Capitol Square lost its head in an act of vandalism. The Heg Park statue was used as a model to create a new head to repair the Capitol Square monument.

Palecek, Mike. The first Norwegian settlements in America : excerpted from The first chapter of Norwegian immigration (1821-1840) : its causes and results by Rasmus Anderson, 1895 (Racine WI, 2019), 182

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Wisconsin residents can access these articles through their BadgerLink account (library name and library card number needed). Copy into your browser:

https://badgerlink.dpi.wi.gov/resources?field_format_tid=469&field_classroom_subject_tid=All&field_user_group_tid=All&field_vendor_tid=All

Format: Newspapers (Choose Newspapers.com Library Edition - World Collection)

Once you get to the site for "World Collection" copy and paste the URLs below into the browser to see each newspaper article.

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Ager behind the campaign, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, April 17, 1923, page 8

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/298973781/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A24357%3A1303276127

More details on Heg Statue, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, August 17, 1924, page 3

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/270523574/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A273187%3A1523560948

Negotiating for space at capitol square, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, September 23, 1924, page 3

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/520364296/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A273187%3A1523560948

Statute to be erected in capitol square, Waupun Leader, Oct. 23, 1924, page 9 https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1058164782/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A273187%3A1523560948

Heg Statue is Unveiled in Norway, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, June 26, 1925, page 8 (unveiled on June 25, 1925 in Lier, Norway) https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/270738173/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1031787%3A1320683215

Norwegian Heg statue part of Norse-American centennial. Waupun Leader, July 2, 1925, page 1

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1058165603/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1031787%3A1320683215

Capital park spot still to be decided. Waupun Leader-News, October 23, 1925, page 6

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1058165603/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1031787%3A1320683215

Heg statue to be at east entrance to capitol park. The Capital Times (Madison WI), October 29, 1925, page 3

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518123277/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1031787%3A1320683215

Waiting for stone base. Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, August 21, 1926, page 8

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/271461130/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1740180%3A1924818632

Details on upcoming Madison gala, The Capital Times (Madison WI), October 15, 1926, page 4

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518250089/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1740180%3A1924818632

Heads of Norwegian Society of America at Heg grave, day before unveiling in Madison, The Capital Times (Madison WI), October 16, 1926, page 5

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/271461130/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1740180%3A1924818632

Heg dedication at Madison’s capitol square, The Capital Times (Madison WI), Oct. 18, 1926, page 9 and 14

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518250393/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1740180%3A1924818632

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518250416/

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518250416/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A1740180%3A1924818632

Fjelde exhibiting work in New York Art Center, The Capital Times (Madison WI), November 4, 1926, page 6

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/518251982/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A2562708%3A381865010

Begin Work on Heg Monument in Racine, The Capital Times (Madison WI), November 1, 1927, page 16

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1058062636/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A2724143%3A1737637175

Racine County Plans to Erect Another Statue of Col Heg, Waupun Leader, December 1, 1927, page 3

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/1058062636/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A2724143%3A1737637175

On old Norway District 1 school grounds. Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, June 21, 1928, page 5

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/271434878/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A3022735%3A1719954173

Heg artifacts donated to Wisconsin Historical Museum. The Capital Times (Madison WI), November 6, 1928, page 10

https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/517719650/?match=1&terms=Heg&pqsid=SnVcCP4Lit1pF3ZkYNJYdA%3A3022735%3A1719954173