2. Old World Wisconsin Galleries

Crossroads Village at OWW

Old World Wisconsin, the Midwest's largest outdoor living history museum, showcases the life of immigrants to the State of Wisconsin in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society and occupies nearly 600 acres in the rolling hills of the Kettle Moraine area of Southeast Wisconsin near the small village of Eagle. It includes nine ethnic farms plus a village with a blacksmith, cobbler, general store, church, inn, shoe shop, and several residences. Interpreters dress in period clothing and go about their daily chores of farming, cooking, laundry, shoe making, blacksmithing, etc. The 40 some odd historic builldings on the site were moved to Old World from various locations in the early 1970s. The museum was opened to the public as the bicentennial project of the State of Wisconsin in 1976.
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Autumn colors in the prairie in front of the Mary Hafford house in Crossroads village.
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Autumn colors in the prairie in front of the Mary Hafford house in Crossroads village.

Fall ColorsGeneral StoreOWWVillage

  • An interpreter demonstrates candle making with molds in the living quarters of the Sisel shoe shop in Crossroads village.
  • An interpreter tells a school group about the Thomas general store in Crossroads village.
  • A blacksmith working in the Grotelueschen blacksmith shop in Crossroads village.
  • Volunteer gardeners working in the Sanford garden in Crossroads village.
  • An interpreter moderates a debate over a dog tax in Harmony Town Hall in Crossroads village.
  • An interpreter presents a passionate argument against a proposed dog tax in the Harmony town hall in Crossroads village.
  • A passionate debate over a proposed dog tax takes place in the Harmony town hall in Crossroads village.
  • Two interpreters discuss a proposed dog tax outside the Thomas general store in Crossroads village.
  • An interpreter makes a rhubarb pie in the Four Mile inn in Crossroads village.
  • The mother of a deceased Civil War soldier sits by his coffin during a wake in the Sanford house. Note the small daguerrotype photograph in a metal frame at the head of the coffin, the black draped window and the flowers. Embalming was not practised at the time and flowers were used to mask the smell of the body at funerals and wakes.
  • Sunflowers in the Sanford home garden in Crossroads village.
  • A group of interpreters gathers to chat outside the Thomas general store in Crossroads village.
  • Autumn colors in the prairie in front of the Mary Hafford house in Crossroads village.
  • Autumn colors in the prairie in front of the Mary Hafford house in Crossroads village.
  • An blacksmith walks through Crossroads village at the end of the day.
  • The praire in front of the Mary Hafford house shows off its colors late in the day. St. Peter's church is in the background.
  • A team of horses with a wagon full of logs pauses in Crossroads Village on the way to the portable saw mill set up in the German area for Autumn on the Farms. a special event held each October.
  • Internior of the Grotelueschen blacksmith shop in Crossroads village.
  • A blacksmith at the Grotelueschen blacksmith shop in Crossroads village shapes a hook on his anvil.
  • A prairie in Crossroads village shows off its September colors. Thomas general store is in the background.
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