Ringling Brothers’ Train Car at Circus World
Hello Everyone. Greetings from La Crosse, the biggest town on Wisconsin’s stretch of The Great River Road. It’s definitely cooled down a bit this week and the first hints of fall are starting to show up on the edges of the leaves and in the products in the stores. Pumpkins are popping up on farm stands and apple orchards are starting to open. I will hold on to summer as long as I can, but I’m really looking forward to the fall as well. It’s been an excellent and busy week out here on the road, taking me from the middle of the state out across the Driftless Region and finally up along the Mississippi River to La Crosse. I’ve explored some of Wisconsin’s early history and even learned one story about the state’s badger connection. It’s been such a busy week so I better get right to it.
When I left you last week I was on my way out to Devil’s Lake State Park, which was a beautiful lake and a great little park. I enjoyed going for a swim and found a place to recycle my recyclables. I really love State Parks, and Wisconsin’s have been pretty good so far. I spent the night in Baraboo and got up early Thursday morning and went for a delicious breakfast at the Broadway Diner. Then I enjoyed a little walk around Baraboo’s downtown area. As I mentioned last week, Baraboo was the birthplace of the Ringling Brothers Circus and its home for many years. I was happy to see the town has embraced that part of its history without taking it to the weird extreme some towns would have. The Ringlings’ father was a harness maker in Baraboo and he and his family lived above the harness shop downtown. He and his wife had ten children – eight of whom would live to adulthood. Five of those children would found the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1894. They would eventually bring their other two brothers on board and go on to buy Barnum and Bailey’s Circus in 1907 and build one of the largest entertainment dynasties America would ever know. Baraboo’s opulent downtown theater is named for Al Ringling and there are subtle and not-so-subtle nods to the famous family all over town. The centerpiece of Baraboo’s Ringling connecting is Circus World, a museum located on what was once the circus’ winter quarters. I love the thought of elephants being walked through downtown Baraboo streets to get some exercise (and saw the pictures to prove it). This is a good circus museum which I had been to before and houses the largest collection of old circus wagons in the world. They do have live performances throughout the summer, but I arrived just days too late to catch one. It was still fun and when I finished there I headed on south to Dodge State Park. Named for the first governor of Wisconsin, this is a pleasant state park surrounding two little lakes. I went on a nice 4 mile hike through the park and was really taken aback by the incredible fields of goldenrod that were there. It was nice to get out on the trail for a while and I enjoyed my hike and then headed down to Dodgeville for the night.
Friday morning I got up and went back north to check out the infamous House on the Rock. I had heard of the House on the Rock for years, and although I never really understood what was so appealing about it from the descriptions I read (especially at the steep admission cost of $30), I decided to give it a look while I was there. I realized within minutes of my arrival that this place defied description and was a truly magical place. The actual house on the rock was built by Alex Jordan Jr. beginning in 1945. He designed and built the house himself using local materials atop a huge rock formation called Deer Shelter Rock. Working around the natural rock formations and trees, Jordan built room after room in incredibly eclectic fashion with Japanese influences and windows looking down at the forest below. After a write-up in a local Madison paper, people started dropping by to try and get a look at this House on the Rock, and after enough people came, Jordan decided to start charging them admission. He brought in $15 that day, $5,000 that year and $34,000 the next. From there, he was off and running, collecting things, building things and constructing new buildings to house it all. It’s resulted in a world class collection of kitsch, but one displayed in such a brilliant and whimsical way that it’s an immersive experience I can only liken to Alice wandering into Wonderland. The lights and sounds and music are all overwhelmingly fun and so over-the-top that I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying themselves there. The centerpiece is definitely the “World’s Largest Carousel”, featuring 269 characters collected from around the world and refurbished in their workshops. None of the final selection is a horse. I could have sat and watched it for hours. I had a smile from ear to ear for the whole six hours I was at House on the Rock and would definitely go back in a heartbeat. It’s by far the greatest roadside attraction I’ve ever seen. I left feeling overwhelmed and giddy and definitely knew there was no way to follow it up that day. I stopped in Mount Horeb for a quick beer and then boogied on back to Madison. I had a delicious Friday Night Fish Fry at Reverend Jim’s Roadhouse out by the casino and then called it an early night.
I was up early on Saturday and went for a morning workout before heading into downtown Madison. I had tickets to the Penn State-Wisconsin game and wanted to give myself plenty of time to park and get to the stadium. I parked near the Capitol and then wandered down State Street, stopping for a beer or two along the way. The closer I got to Camp Randall Stadium, the more the crowd began to surge. I had on my Penn State jersey and definitely stopped to chat with the other Penn State fans who I saw as I went. I must say that I was disappointed in many of the undergraduates who were chanting “F*#+ Penn State” and making comments about Jerry Sandusky. I tried to remind as many as I could that it’s just a game and that child abuse and rape should not be a focus of your rallying cries around a game. It seemed to bounce off of deaf ears and I worry about a generation which has grown up with such tribalism and sensationalism that it doesn’t know the difference. I can cheer on my team and want them to win, but I want them to win fairly and honestly and if they lose then that’s okay too. If I see someone from the opposing team, I should cheer louder for mine instead of screaming derogatory comments at them. I cannot hate someone because they chose a different school than I did, knowing that without that single factor we’d probably have a lot in common. I will say that some young people broke away from their groups to come over and speak with me, shake my hand and welcome me to Madison. They seemed to sense what it was like to be alone in a hostile crowd (although I never for even a second felt physically threatened or in danger), and I commend them for their maturity and concern. The game itself was great and was an awesome clash between two great football teams and programs. Penn State pulled it out in the end, and it was fun to celebrate with my fellow Penn Staters on the sidelines after the game. I stopped for a beer in town on my way back from the game and then headed down the highway to New Glarus. It was just about dark when I got there, but it looked like a cute town that needed more exploration. I stopped in to the New Glarus Fest House for some live music and then continued south to Monroe for the night.
It had been a busy few days and I didn’t want to travel far on Sunday, so I thought I’d check out some to what Monroe had to offer. I started the day at the National Historic Cheesemaking Center which commemorated the dozens of cheesemakers which can be found in the area. When I walked in, the docents were very welcoming and seemed happy to see me. When they asked where I was from and I told them, one of the ladies actually jumped in the air (both feet left the ground) and she let out a whoop! In all my years of traveling, nobody has ever seemed so excited that I was from Washington D.C., but she explained to me that the museum has had guests from 47 states this year, but none yet from Hawaii, Vermont, one other state I can’t remember or Washington D.C. She said since I was the first from my city, my admission was free and they gave me a free cheese board. I had a great tour and learned so much about cheesemaking (and realized I knew next to nothing about cheesemaking). My guide’s father had been a cheesemaker, and it was so interesting to hear about the history of making cheese in the region and how it had changed over the years. At the end of the tour, we went out to the historic cheesemaking shop out back and he showed us a video and walked us through the process from start to finish. It was fascinating and I really enjoyed my visit and all of the wonderful people who worked there.
I spent longer there than I had planned, so I had to rush over to the Minhas Brewery to catch their one o’clock tour. Minhas opened in 1845 and claims to be the second oldest brewery in the country (next to Pennsylvania’s Yeungling of course), and the 17th biggest. It was an interesting place to visit, especially since I’ve never even heard of any of the beers they produce. I know they do a lot of contract brewing – brewing for other companies under that company’s label, but they produce a fair number of their own beers too. At the end of the tour we had 20 minutes to sample as many as we wanted and I can definitely report that I tried a lot of different beers in 20 minutes. Most were actually really quite good. They gave me a souvenir glass and a six-pack to go and I got a few more things from the gift shop and filled my growler for $5.99 (a real bargain) and then headed off into the afternoon. I wandered around the corner to the Monroe central square, the centerpiece of which was the magnificent Romanesque-style Green County Courthouse. I stopped right on the square to get some lunch at Baumgartner’s Deli and Cheese Shop. Green County is the only place in the country still producing stinky Limburger cheese which is something I’ve always heard about but never had and Baumgartner’s was the place for a Limburger sandwich. I really enjoyed mine and picked up a block of even stinkier aged Limburger for the road. After lunch I took a nice, long nap and then went and watched the end of the Brewer’s game in a bar called The French Quarter before heading out to my night stop. It had been a much busier day than I had anticipated, but it was an interesting and fun one as well.
Monday I was up early and off back north to New Glarus, a historically Swiss community which I had stopped in briefly after the game on Saturday. It’s a cute town and they’ve found a good balance of maintaining their heritage and paying homage to their Swiss roots without going over-the-top. I enjoyed taking some photos of the town and grabbing a pastry at the bakery before heading out and west into The Driftless Region. This area of the state was never covered by glaciers, so much of its geology is very old and intact. This has made for good farming conditions and also some of the state’s early mining success. I went to learn some of this history in the well-preserved historic town of Mineral Point where lead was mined beginning in the 1830s. Many of the early miners were of Cornish descent, and they built their town in the Cornish tradition creating what Mineral Pointers now call the “Most Cornish Town Outside of Cornwall”. The architecture is great (and much of the town is preserved on the National Register of Historic Places) and you can definitely find a good Cornish pasty and figgy ‘obbin in the restaurants there. It was Labor Day and downtown was very quiet, but I enjoyed wandering around and taking photos of the old buildings. I read that these early lead miners could be seen going in and out of their little dug-out surface mines on the hill and someone commented how much they resembled badgers, giving the state its mascot early on in its history. Mineral Point is one of Wisconsin’s oldest towns and is definitely worth a visit.
Not far away is the tiny village of Belmont, named after the nearby Belle Mont (‘beautiful mountain” though it’s really not even much of a hill). It was in Belmont that Governor Dodge called together the first legislature of the Wisconsin Territory, thus making it Wisconsin’s first Capital. One of their first orders of business was to move the Capital to Madison. The building they met in is long gone but the two remaining buildings from that time hold a small museum which seems like it is closed most of the time, but it was still an interesting stop. From there, I headed out all the way to Wayalusing State Park which overlooks the confluence of the Wisconsin River and the mighty Mississippi. I spent a little while there and then dropped down into Prairie du Chien where I cooked up some brats next to the river in the beautiful park on Saint Feriole Island. I’ve spent a lot of time on the Mississippi River, though 99.9% of it has been much further south, and found it familiar and comforting – like seeing an old friend in a new town. I enjoyed a quiet sunset over the river and then headed off to bed. The days are getting noticeably shorter, and I was happy to be back in my van for the night at a somewhat reasonable hour. I pulled out my guitar for the first time since I’ve been back on the road and enjoyed playing it for a couple of hours before bed.
Tuesday I had my breakfast back on the Mississippi River and then went for a visit to the Fort Crawford Museum which is also in Prairie du Chien (it’s Wisconsin’s second oldest town and originally a French settlement). The museum was in the rebuilt fort’s hospital and it certainly had some interesting history to share. Fort Crawford was, at one time, commanded by future president Zachary Taylor who received the surrender of the Sauk war leader Black Hawk there in 1832 which ended Black Hawk’s War. Taylor turned Black Hawk over to then-Lieutenant Jefferson Davis to take him to St. Louis. It was also at Fort Crawford that Davis met and fell in love with Sarah Taylor, and the future American president’s daughter would marry the future Confederate president (although she would die long before the Civil War began). The fort was also the long time post of Doctor William Beaumont, who did groundbreaking research on the human digestive tract thanks to a Canadian Voyageur who was shot in the stomach leaving him with a permanent window to his insides. This incident happened at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island where I first read about the doctor and his work, but it was interesting to read more about it here where he was later stationed. The other part of this museum had assorted bric-a-brac from the area, but what I found particularly interesting was their history producing buttons from locally harvested freshwater clams.
Sunset Clouds in La Crosse
After leaving the museum, I popped over the bridge and into Iowa to go visit the Effigy Mounds National Monument. I don’t normally cheat on the state I’m in, but I’d never been to this National Park Site and it was only 10 minutes away. I wasn’t there long, as I’ve seen plenty of mounds and some great effigy mounds in my travels, but I will return some time when I can hike out to see them all. Back in Wisconsin I took a left and started heading north along the Great River Road which parallels the Mississippi River from its Minnesota origin all the way south to Louisiana. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the drive. When I got to La Crosse, I headed to the library for a while and then had a nice wander around downtown. La Crosse is a cool old city with some great buildings and a lively downtown area. I watched the sun set on the river, grabbed a quick sandwich and then called it a night.
This morning I came right to the library to finish up this post so I can go enjoy the beautiful weather out there. I’m hoping to go on a riverboat cruise this afternoon which should be a lot of fun. I’ll probably hang around here tomorrow as well as I’d like to see some more of the city and hopefully get out for some kayaking on the river. Then I’ll head north and follow the Great River Road to where it banks west into Minnesota. From there, I’ll follow the St. Croix River north a little ways before turning back east through Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls and then north to the Northwoods area where I hope to be by this time next week. When I get there I hope to slow down for a few days and do some fishing and just enjoy the lakes and the trails for a while before heading on north and back to Lake Superior. We’ll see how it goes and you’ll have to check back with me next week and see what I get into between now and then. I hope you’re all staying safe, getting outside as much as possible and making good use of all of the sunshine and long days. Have a wonderful week and I’ll see you all back here next week. Thank you so much for reading.
-Mike