The Civil War monument in Calumet County. June 30, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
CHILTON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Civil War monument outside the Calumet County Courthouse has a new home.
On Tuesday morning, the historic statue was disassembled and moved across town to Klinkner Memorial Park.
“The process began about a year ago when someone had a vision that this statue should be moved over to our Veterans Memorial Park,” said Jerry Ott with Calumet County VFW Post 3153. “As you can see the statue is kind of hidden behind all the trees and has not been very well taken care of.”
The monument was built in 1902 at the intersection of Main and Madison in Chilton. It was funded by local Union Army veteran Anton Kocher. In 1933, it was moved to the front of the courthouse, where it stood until Tuesday.
The VFW group advocated for the move to make it clear the county still cares for its veterans.
“We want him to be exposed to the public and the spot that we picked is awesome,” Dan Detroye with the VFW explained. “As you drive in to our community you’re going to see him.”
Work to move the monument took just over four hours. It was taken apart piece by piece and loaded on to a truck bed, where it was then reassembled at Veterans Memorial Park.
A crew from Miron did the heavy lifting.
“Miron Construction offered to do this project for free. Cover all the costs for it, which we were just astounded,” Ott said. “They wanted it done before the 4th of July so we can celebrate our 250th anniversary.”
The monument has taken its place among the rest of the veterans memorials in Chilton just in time for the nation’s birthday.
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