Known to river men along the Chippewa since 1876, the Holcombe Indian, called the King of the Chippewa River, stood guard on the old Holcombe (Little Falls) Dam and was a welcome sight to lumberjacks driving logs down the river to be sawed at the local mill or held and sluiced through the log-way in the dam to be cut at the big mills at Chippewa Falls or Eau Claire. The Indian brave was created by Luke Lyons, a former sailor and straw boss employed by the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company, who carved him straight, impressive, and nearly eight feet tall from a carefully selected white pine log cut by Jene Juvette near Pine Lake, just north of Holcombe, using an axe, drawshave, and pocket knife. During a flood in 1881, he was dislodged from his place on the dam and swept over the falls and rapids down the river to Jim Falls, where he was rescued, repaired, and returned to the Holcombe Dam site, remaining there until the dam was abandoned and a new modern hydroelectric power plant was built. Through the years, he served as a symbol and guardian spirit of loggers and of the mighty Chippewa River.