OLD WORLD WISCONSIN

Today I traveled about an hour and a half to go to this Wisconsin Historic Site. I am lucky that it re-opened recently after being hit by a tornado. Luckily no one was hurt and only one building had some structural damage. However, many trees were down and had to be cleaned away. The is huge, having more than 65 historic buildings and I am told about 5 miles of walking paths. Lucky for me they had a excellent tram system set up, to get you from one place to the next. All of the buildings have been relocated to this site from around Wisconsin. They represent what early life was like in the 1800's. They have been placed in separate areas to identify the region the settlers came from. The areas include: German, Polish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, African American and even one for Yankee's!

What I liked most was the costumed interpreters that would tell you about the early life and of the families who had lived here. Not only did they tell you about things, but they showed you how things were done.
They first house I went in was the Benson House. On the wood stove in the kitchen was an iron frying pan cooking potatoes and onions. Boy did it smell good. It reminded me of my Grandmothers house. This gentleman told us about the family that lived here.



There was a pantry that had a window opening between the kitchen and the pantry. The cook could pass food through the window to the serving girl. This way the heat from the kitchen did not enter the dining area. In the corner of the pantry was the sitting tub. Everyone had their bath on Saturday night to be clean for church.



This lady was busy making Apple Jelly. She had just filled her glass jars with the boiling liquid. To seal the tops of the jars, she had cut circles of paper to fit on top of the jelly. The first paper was dipped in brandy and carefully laid on top of the hot fruit. The brandy would help keep the jelly from going bad. Then a second paper would have been dipped in egg white to seal the top and edges of the glass. The final layer of paper would go over the top of the jar to keep dust off. Everything was done, just exactly like it would have been done.



The one room school is representative of the times also. Children were all grouped together in one class. They did not have many books, so everything was learned by memory. Ink and paper were expensive, so children did their lessons on slates. The school teacher would arrive early at the school during winter to get the wood stove lit, as everything would be frozen inside. No insulation!



The tornado moved very close to this octagonal barn that houses the restaurant. You can see some of the roof is slightly damaged.


In addition to the farms, there was a Cross Roads Village area where the stage coaches would have stopped. There was a blacksmith shop, cobbler, dry goods store and all the things you would expect to see where people would come to town.

Moving down the road tomorrow, until next time.......