Welcome Welcome to Wisconsin: For more than 100 years, Wisconsin has been the most popular vacation destination in the Midwest. Contents Spectacular scenery, friendly people and a 1 2008 Highlights delightful range of family recreation have made it 5 Wisconsin Welcome Centers 5 County Locator Map so. We offer fun in every season. 6 April Events Spring and summer are the headliners with more 8 May Events 11 June Events than 500 fun events in this seasonal calendar. If 17 July Events you like art fairs, car shows, marathons, triathlons, 23 August Events historic re-enactments, community festivals, canoe 29 September Events races, county fairs, pow-wows, fishing 34 Ongoing Events 36 Changing Exhibits tournaments, food festivals, ethnic festivals, music 37 Theatre, Music & Dance festivals, and more, you’ll love Wisconsin. 38 County, Community & Area Tourism Contacts Join us for your best vacation ever. 40 Travel Green Wisconsin IBC Wisconsin Map COVER PHOTOS: Asian Moon Festival by Don Abrams; West Allis Western Days by Gene Staver; Racine sand castles by RJ & Linda Miller; EAA Jim Doyle, Governor AirVenture by Brian Malloy; Northern Wisconsin State Fair by RJ & Linda Miller; Summerfest by Doug Alft, Indian Summerfest by Don Abrams. museum’s park-like grounds overlooking Milwaukee’s riverfront will accommodate gatherings of up to 15,000 What’s motorcycles. (www.harley- davidson.com, 888/224- 2453). Call or log-on for Grand Opening dates. On the home front The new Civil War KNOWLES GARY new? Museum, one of a trio of museums in downtown Every summer, new and Kenosha, will be a welcome ▲ Iola Old Car Show. addition to Wisconsin’s fas- exciting destinations and cinating array of historic T-Bird trifecta events add to the fun of attractions. Opening this Wisconsin will be car col- spring, the museum is the lectors’ heaven in mid-July traveling in Wisconsin. first in the country to focus when three terrific auto on how the Civil War events – the Iola Old Car impacted society beyond the Show, the Spud City Already renowned for opening of the city’s battlefields. Overlooking Rama Lama Auto Rama in great food, fun festivals and Harley-Davidson Lake Michigan, the 57,000 Stevens Point, and the fascinating places, this sum- Museum. The legendary square-foot facility will show National Street Rod mer’s Badger State Best motorcycle manufacturer how various ethnic groups Association’s Milwaukee range from the opening of will showcase its history in experienced life before, dur- Nationals – all align on July the new Harley-Davidson this shrine to all things H-D. ing and after the Civil War, 11-13. Iola is arguably the Museum in Milwaukee to Exhibits will include motor- along with how the war best car show in the nation, the 50th anniversary of cycles from the company’s changed their lives. The per- drawing more than 100,000 Broiler Fest in tiny Eleva. collection of more than 400 sonal stories focus on real spectators each year to see Motorcycle heaven vehicles including a Series soldiers, nurses, spouses, 2,500 collectible cars, shop One that came off the children, clergy, slaves and 2,000 parts vendors, and about to open assembly line in 1903, as tradesmen from throughout buy 1,000 vintage rides, This summer, Harley rid- well as Elvis Presley’s 1956 Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, (www.iolaoldcarshow.com, ers from around the world Harley-Davidson KH and the Illinois, Indiana and 715/445-4000). The Spud will rumble into Milwaukee famous “King Kong,” a cus- Michigan. (www.thecivilwar City (www.spudcity.4t.com, for the much-anticipated tomized 13-foot bike. The museum.org, 262/653-4140) continued... HARLEY-DAVIDSON ▲ Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson Museum. 2008 Spring/Summer Event Guide 1 SEPTEMBER EVENTS parade on Sunday after- Visitors learn about the his- transportation (road, rail- What’s noon. Where’s Eleva? toric lakefront community road and riverboat) influ- Sixteen miles due south of before taking a guided 11/2- enced the local brewing new? Eau Claire. hour tour of the first two industry. In addition to the continued... floors of the mansion and exhibits, the Potosi Brewery, Black Point tours, grounds. (www.cruise- which operated for 120 715/344-0751) show in Lake Geneva lakegeneva.com; 800/558- years (1852-1972), will nearby Stevens Point is a Lake Geneva earned its 5911) again re-open as a micro- sure bet for rod and custom nickname as the “Newport brewery and restaurant. An fans, while the Milwaukee of the Midwest” for its Roll out the barrel interpretive center for the Nationals (www.nsra- many lovely summer homes Beer enthusiasts world- Great River Road will also be usa.com, 800/231-0903) and estates built for wide will beat a path to a part of the complex. will offer more than 2,000 Chicago’s wealthy. One of Potosi this summer for the (www.potosibrewery.com) custom, muscle, classic and the most notable, Black opening of the National American sports cars and Point, is now giving visitors Brewery Museum at the Nip/Tuck at House pick-ups of 1949-1976 vin- a glimpse of the communi- site of the old Potosi on the Rock tage. If it’s got wheels and a ty’s grand past with public Brewery. Following a $3.8 A Wisconsin landmark is motor, it’s gonna be at one tours. The four-story, thir- million restoration and sanc- getting a face-lift. House of these shows. teen-bedroom mansion tioned by the American on the Rock in Spring was built in 1888 Breweriana Green has been a favorite of Finger-lickin’ good for Conrad Association, the Wisconsin visitors for more This year is the 50th Seipp, a museum will than fifty years. Today, the Anniversary of the Eleva German include famous attraction has Broiler Festival, May 30- immigrant changing begun a series of renova- June 1, where residents of and success- exhibits of tions and additions to make this tiny Trempealeau ful brewer all things the experience even more County town (population from Chicago. beer includ- enjoyable. The first phase, 635) celebrate their locally Visitors arrive ing collec- scheduled for completion in famous charcoal-fried chick- at the estate by tions of beer 2008, includes construction en. It’s old-fashioned fun boat – just as the labels, bottles, of a new Welcome Center, complete with a hot rod Seipp family did a cen- coasters, advertising improved covered walkways burn out, volleyball tourna- tury ago. Nautically themed, materials and other memo- and sidewalks, renovation of ment, kiddie parade, tractor the home’s observation rabilia. A brewery trans- the Mill Pond and installa- pull, old-timer’s parade and tower can be seen from portation exhibit will show tion of a new waterwheel, tractor pull, and a grand many points on the lake. how the area’s trifecta of and the creation of an authentic Asian garden designed in the Japanese tradition. A second phase will include development of R. BRUCE THOMPSON a four-season Conservatory overlooking the Asian gar- den and the addition of The Alex Jordan Historic Center that examines the life and work of the House on the Rock creator. The final phase of renovation, timed to open with House on the Rock’s 50th anniversary in 2010, will include a retail center, restaurant, and a plaza to showcase the attraction’s hundreds of container plants. (www.the- houseontherock.com, 800/334-5275) ▲ Black Point Mansion in Lake Geneva. 2 Visit travelwisconsin.com Russian Federation. The sions of the ‘70s, the con- President and the Tsar: sumer capitalism of the Emancipator and ‘80s, and now the terrorism Liberator (Oshkosh Public fears of today. Their media- OSHKOSH PUBLIC MUSEUM Museum, June 21-August rich work includes drawings, 31) is a powerful assem- sculpture, photographs, blage of artifact and art montages, movies, and even including original docu- live performances. Works ments and photographs, range from room-size instal- rare paintings, gilded porce- lations to a renowned series lain, rare copies of the of postcards. Emancipation Proclamation The Milwaukee Art and the Tsar’s Manifesto, Museum’s Gilbert and Lincoln’s hat and coat, the George installation (June contents of his pockets the 14-September 1) includes night he was assassinated, 100 works that span the his chair from Ford’s Theater, artists’ forty-year collabora- his original face cast from tion, as well as several the Library of Congress, and pieces completed specifically more – much more. See it for this exhibition; so, this is yourself. (www.oshkoshmu- simultaneously a major ret- seum.org, 920/236-5799) rospective and a premiere of new work. While their art ▲ The President and the Tsar at the Oshkosh Public Museum, June 21-August 31. Art for all deals with universal themes Gilbert Proesch and drawing fans and critics A Civil War story in a major traveling exhibit George Passmore, two from all corners, it has a of 200 fabulous artifacts British sculptors who met in special appeal to gay and you’ve never heard organized by the American- college, have produced a lesbian communities before Russian Cultural body of work over the past because of the artists’ life Nearly 150 years ago, the Cooperation Foundation in forty years notably charac- partnership and the themes Civil War wrote a bloody partnership with the Library terized by brightly colored they address. London’s Tate chapter in the history of of Congress, the photomontages. Their work Modern is curating the exhi- America. As the war Smithsonian, the Russian has been an ongoing, pene- bition. (www.mam.org, opened, a series of stunning State Historical Museum, trating commentary on the 414/224-3200) Confederate victories tempt- and the State Archive of the punk anger and racial ten- continued..