It’s been a few years since we visited Old World Wisconsin so, a couple of weeks ago, we decided to take another look at this remarkable outdoor museum. Set on approximately 480 acres in Eagle, Wisconsin, this faithfully recreated village and farmland, situated adjacent to Kettle Moraine State Forest, gives visitors an idea of what life was like back in the 1880’s.
It’s fair to say that there’s quite a bit of walking involved in visiting OWW but thankfully they have added a tram with lots of stops along the way, in case you run out of steam. We opted to walk for most of the time, but took the tram to get from one area to another. The museum consists of three main areas, Crossroads Village, Scandinavian Homesteads and Life On The Farms. Of course, there were plenty of photo opportunities but rather than bombarding you with dozens of pictures in one post, I’ll only cover a small portion of the trip at one time. So, off we go!
The first building on our tour of Crossroads Village is St. Peter’s Catholic Church. St Peter’s was the first Catholic church in Milwaukee. It was later moved to the grounds of St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis and then relocated in Old World Wisconsin. The original foundation stone (lower left) shows the date 1839.
Next up, the Irish Home where it appears to be wash day. The one tricky thing about taking pictures at places like Old World Wisconsin is trying not to get other people’s kids in the shot. During the busy season, OWW is full of children enjoying the various demonstrations, but I am very well-aware that parents don’t necessarily want pictures of their kids put on public display. In order not to do that I sometimes have to angle the shot in such a way that it doesn’t always show the subject to its best advantage, especially if I don’t want to wait around for everyone to clear out.
One slight disappontment on the day was the fact that, owing to a snafu on the previous evening, the forge wasn’t operational. I’d been looking forward to getting some shots there, but contented myself with views of the Wagon Shop and the outside of the Blacksmith’s Shop.
I hope you’ll join me here for the next post when I continue our tour of Old World Wisconsin.