Title:  Indian Warrior Bust
Medium: Sculpture – Metal
Location: St. Charles History Museum, 215 East Main Street
Owner: City of St. Charles
Map Locator Number: #17

Story:  This bust is all that is left of the Indian Warrior statue that was originally sited in Pottawatomie Park in 1915 to honor the Potawatomi.  It was made from a relatively thin metal (perhaps zinc) with bronze overlays.  The bronze was stripped from the sculpture by vandals, and the piece was removed from the park after 1976.  The sculpture was produced by the  J. L. Mott Iron Works in New York.

From the St. Charles History Museum:  Pottawatomie Park was planned in 1890 to be a resort to draw travelers on the new Chicago Great Western Railway which acquired the southern portion of the land in 1885. In 1892, the pavilion was built as the first building on the resort grounds. Plans to build a grand hotel were never completed, and in 1912, the property was made the first public park in Illinois under the Illinois Public Park Act of 1911. Bert C. Norris established the St. Charles Park District in 1911, and the park district bought the land from the railroad in 1912 and dedicated it Pottawatomie Park to honor the tribe that once used the area as their hunting grounds.

Photograph of the bust courtesy of the SCAC.  Photograph of the original sculpture sited in Pottawatomie Park courtesy of the St. Charles History Museum.