Jens Jensen

Jens Jensen was born in Denmark in 1860 and came to the United States in 1884. He became a laborer for the West Park Commission in Chicago, creating the "American Garden" with wild flowers in 1888. He eventually became the general superintendent of the commission. He created designs for parks in the City of Racine, Wisconsin, including a suspension footbridge for the Washington Park Golf Course.

Jensen retired in 1920 and started his own design firm, creating many landscape plans, including the Lincoln Highway Ideal Section in Indiana, Henry Ford's "Fair Lane" estate, four homes for Edsel Ford, the Ford exhibit at the 1933 World's Fair and Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He died in 1951, at the age of 91, at his estate in Eliason Bay, Wisconsin.