Memorial High School's leggy Old Abe

1. Wilson Park

The Chippewa Valley’s most famous Civil War veteran never fired a shot, but she – yes, SHE – is remembered with memorials across the Chippewa Valley (and beyond). In downtown Eau Claire’s Wilson Park, you’ll see a statue of Old Abe and a marker telling the war eagle’s tale. It was Richard F. Wilson, the park’s namesake, who encouraged volunteer troops from Eau Claire to adopt the young eagle as a mascot.

2. Steamboat Launch

A few blocks from Wilson Park, just down the riverbank from where Gray Street dead ends at Graham Avenue, a marker indicates the location of a 19th-century steamboat landing. Here, on Sept. 6, 1861, the company of volunteers and their mascot departed Eau Claire for Madison.

3. Camp Randall

True, this monument isn’t in the Chippewa Valley, but if you’re ever in the vicinity of UW-Madison’s football stadium, check out the impressive stone arch topped by a statue of Old Abe. It was at the original Camp Randall, a training ground for Union troops, that Old Abe received her name – in honor of Abraham Lincoln, naturally.

4. Memorial High School

The 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry – the so-called “Eagle Regiment” – saw action throughout the South for the next three years. Old Abe rallied troops in dozens of battles, including the Siege of Vicksburg. Now Old Abe oversees more peaceful pursuits as Memorial’s mascot, embodied in a rooftop statue.

5. Jim Falls

You’ll find another big statue of Old Abe in Jim Falls, a small community about 30 miles northeast of Eau Claire along the Chippewa River. It was near here in the spring of 1861 that Chief Sky of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribe sold Old Abe – then just a recently captured eaglet– to the wife of farmer Daniel McCann in exchange for a bushel of corn. A few months later, it was McCann who sold Old Abe to the soldiers in Eau Claire.