Our History
Old World Wisconsin opened its doors in 1976 with more than 60 historic structures ranging from ethnic farmsteads with furnished houses and rural outbuildings, to the Crossroads Village with its traditional small-town institutions.
From Lake Superior to the Illinois border, and from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, historians documented many old farmhouses, outbuildings, and small-town structures that became the foundation for Old World Wisconsin.
Piece by piece, workers painstakingly dismantled the old structures by numbering bricks, boards and logs, and moving them to the site of Old World Wisconsin. In a setting largely unchanged from the rolling prairies the first pioneers found, the buildings took shape once more, reconstructed precisely as they had once been built.
Today, Old World Wisconsin is always growing and changing. With the addition of new structures, new gardens, new livestock, and newly uncovered stories, a visit here is a wonderful mix of history and fresh experiences – one that is sure to make a memory for every guest.