Old Wisconsin
July 18th, 2007Date: Monday morning. And we were headed on the road.
Destination: Our cabin in Minnesota.
Route: Indirect through Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota
Knowing my children enjoy history and especially any historical reenactments, we ventured north to Old World Wisconsin, a recreated world in which farmers, tradesmen and shopkeepers lead their lives in the same way of 19th century Wisconsin settlers.
In 9 areas we discovered buildings, people and the life of early Wisconsin settlers from German, Polish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Yankee America and African-American backgrounds. A village includes an inn, shoe shop, blacksmith ship, church and general store.
Since it was a slow day, we received lots of attention. “Settlers” in many of the areas would tell us a lot about the times and what the settlers were enduring. In the German area, the girls petted a horse. In the Norwegian area, the girls rolled dough to make a pie and in the Finnish area, the girls saw a newborn calf and visited a root cellar.
The most impressive building for us was the building separate from the main house in the Finnish area, the sauna.
We had planned to spend 1-2 hours in Old Wisconsin. Our visit, which wasn’t exhaustive, although it was tiring, took 4 hours.
June 18
