The westward migration of pioneers swept across the Midwest like a tidal wave in the nineteenth century. In Wisconsin, Eastern-born Yankees staked out homesteads next to neighbors from Germany, Norway, Poland, and other European countries, all seeking opportunity and affordable farmland. Villages sprouted in their wake as blacksmiths, shoemakers, and merchants set up shop to barter and sell their wares and services. Though the pioneer economy alternately languished and prospered, most newcomers' visions of a better life took root and flourished. And today, as dawn breaks on the twenty-first century, that epic story from a century before continues to unfold at Old World Wisconsin.
Farmers still ply fields with antique farm implements lugged by teams of oxen and horses.
Farmsteads and settlements representing German, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Yankee, and African-American pioneers dot nearly 600 acres of rolling, wooded hills as unspoiled as the land that greeted the first settlers. And an 1870s crossroads village tells the story of small-town life in America's Heartland. Come discover a place where history truly lives and breathes. Come home to Old World Wisconsin.