AWAY IN WISCONSIN

[Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jack Douglas with another armchair vacation in America the Chippewa Indians called it missing or the gathering of the waters today some people call it America's Dairyland but no matter what name we give it Wisconsin offers a countryside of rolling green hills 8,000 lakes and handsome modern cities its people proudly cherish the customs of their ancestors whether they be Winnebago Indians or the Swiss who live in the village of New Glarus this ladies and gentlemen is your armchair vacation and mine away in Wisconsin this strange-looking creature gave Wisconsin its nickname the Badger State and this badger resides of the Milwaukee zoo but his kinfolk may be found in forests such as this from the northern part of the state fifty percent of Wisconsin is natural woodland making an ideal vacation country for anyone who loves the out-of-doors but the woods and lakes are only part of the story of this beautiful state in the city of Racine we can marvel for example at the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright who designed these buildings for one of Wisconsin's large manufacturing companies built in 1936 they were certainly far ahead of the times the state capital is Madison a beautiful small city with Lake Mendota on the north and Lake Monona to the South Milwaukee however is Wisconsin's major city with a population of over 600,000 and widely known as a center of German American culture in the United States one of the most striking examples of modern architecture to be found here is the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center designed by the famous architect Eero Saarinen this building of classic design stands as a tribute to those who gave their lives in World War two and the Korean War huge mosaic panels on the exterior of the Memorial Center depict the dates of the two wars in massive Roman numerals made by Edmund Lewandowski the five panels weigh about 10,000 pounds and contain one million four hundred and forty thousand pieces of glass and stone as modern as the space-age are the three glass domes of the horticultural conservatory in Milwaukee's Mitchell Park they're called canoodle space frames and each dome is 140 feet in diameter and 80 feet high inside a spiderweb network of glass and aluminum tubing allows natural sunlight to nurture the hundreds of plants and blooming flowers we're in the structure called the show house where the summer plant display is the current attraction [Music] come September these delicate pink and lavender asters will be removed to make way for an entirely different floral extravaganza in this the most unusual house of flowers in America looking at these tall red light grasses you might think we've taken a detour to Cape Cod but the place is Sheboygan and the beach is on the breeze swept shores of Lake Michigan waves to frolic in the warm Sun above it's a great place to bring the children the beach by the way is a Thierry Andre State Park an hour and a half drive north of the city Green Bay like many other Wisconsin cities stands on the edge of an important waterway located at the southern tip of a large Bay that extends into Lake Michigan it began its growth as a fur trading center in the late 1700s about 12 miles south of the city on highway 57 there is a quiet Park and a plaque that reads Nicolay memorial the statue is of Jean Nicolet a French explorer who stepped out of a birch canoe and into the pages of history the year was 1634 Nicolay was met by a party of friendly Winnebago Indians and Wisconsin's recorded history began on that day only 14 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock the pride and joy of Green Bay as we know is one of the toughest football teams in the nation the Green Bay Packers are one of the few teams ever to win the National Football League championship two years in a row Green Bay with a population of only 80,000 is the smallest city in the United States to support a professional football team and what's more the team is owned by the citizens of the sports minded community most of the taxpayers own stock in the football franchise and every year the 51,000 seat stadium is practically sold out to season ticket buyers near the town of Baileys Harbor the small chapel reminds us of the scandinavian settlers who came here in large numbers during the early 1800s but the best-known replica of a real scandinavian village is located in an isolated valley 23 miles northwest of madison it's called appropriately little Norway opened from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. seven days a week this charming bit of the old world has a museum building that was built in Chand Heim Norway in 1885 brightly coloured dragons with fiery tongues of Dorne the roof corners the ancient Norseman believed they would ward off evil spirits our curiosity aroused let's follow our guide inside for a better look at the life and customs of the Norway in America many years ago the young lady is Miss Hetty Rose Hart and she's wearing a heart under costume that derives its name from a province in Norway these Norwegian best fronts come in many different colors and are made of hundreds of tiny beats and if you enjoy sawing hear this each bead is sewn on the material individually and it's all done the old-fashioned way by hand of course and here's a pair of wooden wedding spoons that were carved from one single piece of pine now the bride and groom ate with these spoons at their wedding feast looping the chain around their necks the courting to tradition the first of the newlyweds to take a bite of the wedding cake with one of these spoons would rule the house if you think you're a Houdini you might try to solve the puzzle of his jewel box it has 14 wooden locks it's been at the Museum for 30 years and in all that time no one has been able to make all of the 14 locks open so that the inside of the box could be seen we couldn't open it so no pictures I'm truly sorry this is an L bowl a quart and a half to quench of Vikings thirst in ships such as this model the men of Norway dare at the raging seas and their descendants emigrated hundreds of years later to this part of Wisconsin bringing with them the traditions and customs of their forebears an example is this quaint little house of logs sitting on carved wooden posts it's called the stopper house and was used for the storage of dry food the heavy supports have deep niches cut into them to prevent rodents from climbing up and gnawing a hole in the floor of the storehouse the high steps leading up to the stop warehouse were built as a separate unit and were placed almost two feet away from the front door again as a protection against field mice in Norway Europe girls still hurt cows and when they're in the mountains tending the herds they live in LOD houses similar to this these cabins have roofs made of live supports with a double layer of birch bark and about six inches of sod on top of the bark the storks are thought to bring good luck to anyone living in the house this little gnome like fellow is called and Miss say by the Norwegians and supposedly looks at to the farm while the owners are asleep at night the sign says Alpine cafe and judging from the look of the buildings we could be in Zurich or San Moritz but the fact is were just 24 miles south of Madison at the small town of New Glarus Wisconsin most of the buildings are of Swiss design even to the placement of large rocks on the roofs to cause a slow break up of heavy snow in the winter New Glarus was founded in 1845 by a hundred and eight Swiss colonists who emigrated from the canton or state of Glarus Switzerland today there is a population of about 1,500 and when they staged their annual Volks fest and celebration of the founding of the colony everyone in town turns out to watch the parade about a fifth of the population takes part in the festival there's the mayor of New Glarus riding by the Swiss cheese queen goats from the 4-h club and Holstein Friesian milk count and now a Swiss flag thrower and marchers carrying long Alpine horns next the flags of the 22 Swiss cantons carried by girls wearing authentic 13th century costumes now let's listen as the my stars sing and dance to an old Swiss song called Russia [Music] [Music] in greenbush wisconsin we visit at the old Wade house it was once a stagecoach in a welcome stopping place for passengers on the stage run between Sheboygan and Fond du Lac the house was built by Sylvanus Wade in 1852 eight years after he had settled in greenbush bringing his wife Betsy and their nine children to live in a cabin built of logs in 1950 the old inn was rescued from a state of dilapidation and completely restored typical of the authentic furniture to be found inside the inn is this hot chair that can be used either as a seat or a table and how would you like this Royal Doulton bowl and pitcher in your kitchen cupboard over a hundred years old they're almost priceless and value in 1852 one of the conveniences for the lady of the house was the springfed well right smack in the kitchen well today the same pure water is brought up in the good old-fashioned way with a wooden bucket the White House has one of the finest collections of English spatter where China in the entire country no less beautiful as this handsomely can't feed old four-poster bed made of a wood called Tiger maple in the tavern section we can see the original registration desk and during the Civil War it was used as a swearing in place for men from Greenbush who are joining the forces of the northern states remember it and see it the old Wade house at green bush a vacation in Wisconsin wouldn't be complete unless we stopped to try our luck with rod-and-reel at one of the state's eight thousand lakes this is white birch lake near the town of Boulder Junction the fishermen are Pat wills II and a son Bruce and thereafter muskellunge one of the most unpredictable game fish in the state this one's a beauty a 26 pound muskie the craft Mart near the town of sister Bay in northeastern Wisconsin takes us back to the days when material for suits dresses and rugs was woven by hand using a large wooden loom Gertrude Mayer carefully weaves fabrics with patterns and colors who will delight the eyes of anyone who admires luxurious cloth yes folks step right up the show is about to begin and we couldn't find a better place than the Circus World Museum in the little town of Baraboo Wisconsin all the wonderful sights sounds and smells that have enticed people into the special world of the circus for centuries past can be enjoyed here in one afternoon and one of the greatest sounds of all is the music of a real old-time steam Calliope let's listen [Music] and isn't this a magnificent circus wagon all told there are 35 ornately decorated bandwagons tableaus and cage wagons some of them dating back 80 years and we don't have to get up at 5:00 in the morning in order to watch them load the circus trains it happens every day at 10:00 a.m. and then again at 2:00 in the afternoon with 15 acres devoted to circus life the State Historical Society of Wisconsin has gathered together the world's largest collection of treasured wagons and memorabilia from ten shows of Europe and the United States the beautifully painted France band wagon built in 1919 and this wonderful old chain-driven Mack truck a workhorse used by Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey in the 1920s now although it's called a museum life here at circus world is far from static big Percheron draft horses still haul the rolling stock and watch this troupe of young precocious performing elephants the trainers are Mary and John Harry oh and the show goes on twice a day seven days a week and here's a cutie a skipping elephant the place again Baraboo Wisconsin now can you possibly guess what this is all about well near Hayward the Chippewa Indians still harvest wild rice along the quiet shallows of the Nama coggan River they use the same primitive methods of their ancestors a canoe is pulled slowly through the rice plants while the woman uses wooden sticks to not the right off the tall slender stalks the rice falls into the bottom of the canoe and later the grain is put in the Sun to be dried in a birch bark tray the Indians we've just seen are only part of the attraction at history land recreation of life and early Wisconsin you known these days of highly sophisticated power tools it's interesting to go back to the time when the couple of Lumberjacks would cut up a big tree using nothing more than a two-man rip saw and an awful lot of muscle power another skill that was developed to a high degree in the lumber camps was the art of throwing an axe forest black deer demonstrates a perfect bullseye logrolling or Burling is a fast-moving ruff contest that requires great skill some fancy footwork and plenty of endurance in the white shirt is Howard SIA wearing red is Billy hot pink the [Applause] [Applause] logs used for the sport are numbered and range in size from 20 inches in diameter number one down to 14 inches number four and as the size of the logs diminishes staying on becomes that much more difficult another sport developed in the old lumber camps was a rough-and-tumble affair canoe jousting using a long pole with a boxing glove attached the idea is to knock your opponent into the water and then keep him from overturning your own canoe well anyway that's the idea in the dreamy wisconsin dells country we're stopping at this log stockade called fort Dells a flashback to the days of the American frontier we can take a ride on an authentic River packet boat hop aboard a real stagecoach or try our luck on a hanging bridge there's also a miniature train ride but hold on what's all the commotion about well we might have known it it's that no-good critter Black Bart he just never gives up you know the last six years black part is held up the same train two thousand eight hundred and eighty times and of course he gets caught every time and what's more any youngster within running distance joins the posse and takes the rascal off to the local jail [Music] the men in the background beating the TomTom is Chief Edward cloud of the Winnebago tribe his four sons are performing the age-old eagle dance a show of respect for the tribal chief who because of his bravery is entitled to wear the feathers of a golden eagle this too is at Fort Dells in the upper Dells of the Wisconsin River these 30 passenger boats take visitors on a scenic tour of some of the state's most beautiful waterways passing by such spots is the entrance to which is gulch our boat moves along beneath eroded sandstone cliffs on the 12 mile trip then silently and slowly we enter a wooded Glen with overhanging trees and just barely enough water for our boat to make the passage at stand Rock we disembark for a bit of unexpected entertainment a big German Shepherd named chief is being put through his paces he's making the 12-foot jump from the 46 foot high pillar of stone to a Ledge where his master waits the wisconsin dells an unforgettable trip through some of the most scenic waterways in america this odd-looking contraption bouncing along through the woods is called a duck like its namesake it operates on land of water splashing into the Wisconsin River with a kind of wild abandon that often surprises some of its unsuspecting passengers once in the water however it glides along quite smoothly when it encounters an obstacle such as a sandbar it simply crawls up and over and then proceeds on its way again and no one's the worst for wear these duck rights on the Wisconsin Dells take an hour and 10 minutes and along the way we can cruise on Lake Delton following historic Indian trails and then Ford several creeks it's a unique experience on land and water and another reason for spending a fun-filled vacation in this big green state called Wisconsin a land of deep woods and shimmering lakes a place to retrace the paths of the American frontier and you'll relish every moment you spend away in Wisconsin let's return to New Glarus for a minute that charming village that's often been called the most unique Swiss settlement in America as the gaily colored parade of Swiss flags goes by we saw those earlier we hear an unfamiliar sound in the distance well these are those Swiss Alpine horns they were originated by shepherds in the Swiss Alps who carved each one out of a single piece of mountain hi listen [Music] [Applause] next