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Swiss Historical Village

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MikeInTown
MikeInTown
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4 out of 5
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Cheese and Bees

  • November 1, 2009
  • Rated 4 of 5 by MikeInTown from Norristown, Pennsylvania
Cheese and Bees

The Swiss Historical Village is located in a residential neighborhood in New Glarus, Wisconsin - a.k.a America's Little Switzerland. Instead of doing a self-guided visit, we chose to join the guided tour (AAA membership discount accepted). At the Swiss Historical Village, you join the tour group at any point and follow along until you’ve visited all 14 buildings. It takes about 1.5 hours to see the whole village in this manner.

Our tour guide was a Swiss native who moved to America 58 years ago. We joined him and two other visitors at the Hall of History where we learned the story of the 193 colonists who left their Alpine homes in Glarus, Switzerland in search of land in America. Out of that group, 131 of them arrived in Green County, Wisconsin in 1845 where they established the town of New Glarus. The Swiss Historical Village contains buildings and artifacts from those first settlers as well as items from their descendents and other residents living in New Glarus as late as the 1950's.

As our tour progressed, we were led into some interesting buildings. We had a look around in a log cabin built in the 1850's. We saw the smokers, extractors, and drawers of a beekeeper in the Bee House (no bees there anymore). We pretended to be students in the one-room schoolhouse. We watched a film on the cheesemaking process and had a close-up look at the old equipment used in the 1890's cheese factory building. After all, the Swiss played a huge role in putting Wisconsin on the map as America's cheese producer. In addition to Swiss, Limburger cheese was a popular product here. I was particularly impressed with the huge cauldron suspended by pulleys and levers for moving the milk and cheese around the factory.

I was surprised at how hands-on this attraction is considering the age of the artifacts. The schoolhouse is still used on special occasions. Cheese is still made in the factory once a year during Oktoberfest. I was allowed to sit in the fire trucks dating back to the early 1900's and even operate the hand-cranked siren. My most memorable hands-on moment came while we were in the log church. Our guide began talking about the old pump organ in the corner. I had seen similar organs dating back to the late 1800's during our visit to Old World Wisconsin and Little Norway but was not allowed to touch them. Therefore, when our guide asked if there were any musicians present that would like to try out the organ, I almost leaped over the bench in front of me to volunteer.

I decided to play a hymn out of the hymnal on the ledge during my attempt to play the old organ. It was an awkward experience because in order to make a sound, I needed to continuously pump my feet on the two pedals at a rate that was not necessarily in time with the music I was playing. I eventually started to get the hang of it enough to make somewhat intelligible music but I was far from being good at it. I was thankful for the opportunity to try out such an old instrument.

In addition to the Swiss Historical Village, I recommend making the 6-block drive to 1st Street. Here you’ll find Swiss chalet-style architecture along with decorated cow statues in front of the local businesses. We loaded up on goodies from the bakery and from the Maple Leaf Cheese & Chocolate Haus. We also enjoyed our best dinner in Wisconsin at the Glarner Stube Restaurant on 1st Street.

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