I am a huge aficionado of quirky, off-the-beaten-path tourist attractions. Wisconsin happens to be full of them, whether it be an unusual museum, whimsical folk art or the world’s largest of some random object. Over the years I have traveled all over the state seeking Wisconsin’s truly weirdest offerings, and here are just a few that make for solid day trips from Milwaukee.
Photo by Ben Slowey
The House on the Rock
A sculpture at The House on the Rock
We cannot start anywhere else than pring Green’s The House on the Rock. Epitomizing sensory overload maximalism, The House on the Rock is without a doubt one of the most bizarre environments you will ever experience. The story goes, an eccentric rich guy named Alex Jordan built the architecturally peculiar complex into Deer Shelter Rock in the mid 20th century, where he displayed his curious, obsessive collections of gadgets, oddities and antiquities. These collections encompass everything from room-sized music boxes and old-timey storefronts to dollhouses and circus dioramas to model ships and suits of armor to classic cars and old firearms and lots more. Three of the most famous features within the House are the Infinity Room (a glass corridor that juts 250 feet out from the building), the 200 ft long sea creature (in the “Heritage of the Sea” exhibit) and the enormous carousel—the world’s largest, in fact. Outside, a beautifully curated Japanese-style garden adorns the grounds. About halfway through the attraction, you can grab a bite to eat in a Lynchian black-and-white tile pizza parlor. Give yourself at least three hours or so to experience the whole thing.
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In North Freedom, behind the otherwise unsuspecting Delaney’s Surplus Sales right off Highway 12, is the wildly odd Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park whose centerpiece is Forevertron, the second-largest scrap metal sculpture in the world. Built in the 1980s by Tom Every (“Dr. Evermor”), Forevertron was designed with a science fiction storyline in mind that involves a genius inventor, a lightning storm and getting launched into space. Among the industrial junk installations adjacent to Forevertron are various giant bugs as well as a band of 70 birds. Although Dr. Evermor passed away in 2020, his family carries on his legacy and can sometimes be found at the park sharing his stories and memories. It is free to enter and donations are accepted. A parking lot is accessible from the highway.
Circuses and Clowns
Celebrated for its history as a circus town, Baraboo is home to two extraordinary attractions that can be easily incorporated into one trip. Circus World is a museum devoted to all things circus history and culture, featuring archives of news clippings and gaudy advertisements as well as exhibits of wacky artifacts like antique circus wagons, dioramas and clown cars. Over the summer, the museum hosts real circus and magic performances. Just a couple minutes away is the International Clown Hall of Fame, located in a downtown business strip, dedicated to the art and history of clowning. Run by practicing clown Greg DeSanto, the small museum houses all sorts of props, costumes and memorabilia showcasing the most famous of clowns, the many different types of clowns, and clowns from across the world.
More than 5,000 different mustards from across the globe are displayed in Middleton’s National Mustard Museum, hundreds of which you can actually sample. There is also a gift shop where you can purchase sweet mustards, hot mustards, fruit mustards, horseradish mustards—or pick up some mustard-themed merchandise. Entry is free, plus the museum puts on a street festival in Middleton (“painting the town yellow”) every year on the first Saturday of August.
Photo by Ben Slowey
Cave of the Mounds
Cave of the Mounds
Go spelunking in Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, a natural limestone cave and treasure trove of marvelous geological formations like stalagmites, stalactites, flowstone and “soda straws.” You may also want to ask the tour guide about the otherworldly critters known as springtails that live in the cave waters. In addition to the normal guided tour, Cave of the Mounds offers a blacklight experience where you are provided with specialized flashlights while completely in the dark.
Known as the “Bicycling Capital of America,” Sparta is home to several noteworthy roadside attractions. As the hometown of Apollo astronaut Deke Slayton, Sparta honors the late, decorated pilot with the small but striking Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum housing artifacts dedicated to both space travel and the town’s rich cycling culture. To put it in perspective, dozens of antique bicycles occupy the same room as a small sliver of rock from the Moon billions of years old.
Photo by Ben Slowey
F.A.S.T. Mold Yard
F.A.S.T. Mold Yard in Sparta, Wisconsin
Sparta is also home to F.A.S.T. (Fiberglass Animals, Shapes and Trademarks), a company that constructs fiberglass molds used as scenery or advertisements for restaurants, theme parks and tourist attractions (The House on the Rock’s sea monster was built by F.A.S.T.). Behind the company factory is the Mold Yard, an open field littered with hundreds of discarded statues that may or may not be reused in the future. Visitors are welcome to walk through the eerie landscape and stumble upon shark heads sticking out of the ground, a whale with a wide-open mouth that likely was once a children’s slide, elephants with trunks in the air and even a discolored Big Boy.
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This just scratches the surface of all the weird Americana inhabiting Wisconsin. Other honorable mentions include Dodgeville’s Don Q Inn (featuring themed fantasy rooms as well as a whole C-97 Stratofreighter plane in the front yard), Taliesin in Spring Green (Frank Lloyd Wright’s residence and studio), the Wisconsin Dells’ Museum of Root Beer (featuring root beer flights), M. Schettl Sales in Oshkosh (humongous supply store with warehouses full of lawn ornaments as well as several acres of junk art), the Toy Train Barn in Argyle (for model train lovers), Mount Horeb’s Trollway (troll sculptures peppered all over town, owing to the area’s Norwegian heritage), the Museum of Unremarkable Objects in Gays Mills (a curation of ordinary everyday things plus a creepy folk art project outside) and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers (still a functioning print workshop, home to over a million wood types letters). And who could forget about the World’s Largest Six Pack in La Crosse.
Some weird Wisconsin sites are too far from Milwaukee to do in a day and would be more ideal for a weekend trip. Expect those to be covered separately in the future!
