If the essence of the Midwest can be captured in one abstraction, it may well be in its historic sites. Here lies the region`s heritage, venerating the past, providing perspectives on the present and future. Each year millions of visitors flock to sites were famous people lived or where important events, large and small, took place. Here are several that, in one way or another, helped shape the Midwest.
Mineral Point. Wis.: Wisconsin`s third-oldest community (1828), Mineral Point was the center of the state`s 19th-Century lead boom. Miners from the Cornwall region of England arrived here, about 70 miles southwest of Madison, in 1830 and their heritage survives in the town`s stone houses and traditional pasties (a type of meat pie), saffron cakes and tea biscuits. A ”Flavors of Old Cornwall” festival in late September offers Cornish cookery.
The community`s Shake Rag Street was named from the Cornish wives` custom of waving rags to summon their men from the mines on the opposite hillside. Maps outlining a driving tour of historical and architectural attractions are available at the Tour Information Center in Water Tower Park on U.S. Highway 151.
Pendarvis, 114 Shake Rag St., is a group of six restored Cornish miners homes dating from the 1840s. Tools, furniture and mining equipment are displayed. Costumed guides offer tours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, May through October. Admission, $4 adults; $3.60 over 65; $1.50 ages 5-17.
Shake Rag Valley, 18 Shake Rag St., has reconstructed and restored homes and businesses of Cornish artisans. Self-guided tours are offered from 9 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day, May through October. Admission $1.75 adults; $1.25 students.
The 1868 Gundry House, 234 Madison St., is a Victorian Italianate mansion with Victorian furnishings and artifacts relating to Mineral Point, including a large mineral collection. Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Admission $2 adults; $1 under 12.
Mineral Point recently has become a center for arts and handicrafts, and several galleries and studios welcome visitors. Contact Mineral Point Chamber of Commerce, 114 High St., Mineral Point, Wis. 53565; 608-987-3201.
First Capitol State Park at Belmont, Wis. (15 miles south on U.S. 151, then 3 miles northwest on County Hwy. G), contains Wisconsin`s first Territorial Capitol buildings. The Council House is furnished as it was during the 1836 legislative session; the old Supreme Court Building has displays of tools, crafts and 1830s agriculture. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Admission is free.
You can trace the region`s mining history at the Platteville, Wis., Mining Museum, 385 E. Main St. (six miles west of Belmont on U.S. 151). Guided tours include a walk through the Bevins Mine, an 1845 lead mine 50 feet underground. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, May through October; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the rest of the year. Admission, $3.50 adults; $3 over 65; $1.50 ages 5-15.
John Deere Historic Site, Grand Detour, Ill.: This prairie hamlet about 100 miles west of Chicago seems an unlikely birthplace for an agricultural revolution, but in 1837 Grand Detour blacksmith John Deere built a plow that changed agriculture forever.
The early settlers` cast-iron plows worked poorly in the rich loam of the Illinois prairie, and farmers had to stop and scrape them clean every few steps. Deere solved the problem with a plowshare fashioned from a broken steel sawmill blade, and opened the prairies to agriculture.
In 1847, Deere moved about 60 miles west to Moline, Ill., and founded the firm that is today the world`s leading producer of farm equipment. His original blacksmith shop was destroyed by fire and the exact location lost to history until 1962, when the site was excavated. A museum building constructed over the dig holds the remains of the Deere`s shop, just as they were found.
Exhibits include a mural depicting shop operations, photos and tools. A 20-minute multimedia presentation tells the John Deere story. The complex includes a visitors` center, replica of the blacksmith shop with a working smithy and Deere`s 1837 home.
Original furnishings include Deere`s wife`s sewing table and hand-painted Staffordshire china. Built into the back porch is the well that John Deere himself dug, still filled with water after more than 150 years.
Grand Detour is six miles northeast of Dixon, on Ill. Hwy. 2. Guided tours are offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day from April 1 through Nov. 30. Admission is $2, age 16 and older. Contact John Deere Historic Site, 8393 South Main, Grand Detour, Dixon, Ill. 61021; 815-652-4551.
New Salem State Historic Site, Petersburg, Ill.: If Abraham Lincoln could walk the streets of this log-cabin village where he lived from 1831 to 1837, much would look familiar. Oxen and horses graze in pastures and gardens are planted as they were in the 1830s.
Meticulous reconstruction includes some two dozen houses, shops, stores and industries standing on their original sites and reproduced as they were in the 1830s. Authentic period furnishings include many items from the original New Salem. Costumed interpreters offer demonstrations of 19th-Century chores and crafts.
The Henry Onstot Cooper shop is original to the village. Here Lincoln studied law, feeding the fire with wood shavings as he read late into the night. A small museum has exhibits on early firearms, pioneer crafts and quilts. Prominently displayed is the surveyor`s compass Lincoln used to plat several nearby communities.
The village is part of New Salem State Park, which offers camping and picnic facilities. Admission to both is free. New Salem State Historic Site is 20 miles northwest of Springfield, on Ill. Hwy. 97; open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day April through October, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the rest of the year.
Springfield, Ill., Lincoln`s home from 1837-1861, has numerous historic sites. They include: Lincoln Home National Historic Site at 8th and Jackson streets, the only home Lincoln owned; Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, 6th and Adams streets, where Lincoln practiced law with William Herndon; Old State Capitol, 6th & Adams Streets. Here Lincoln served in the legislature and made his famous ”House Divided” speech; Lincoln`s Tomb State Historic Site, in Oak Ridge Cemetery, is impressive.
The 114th Infantry Regiment performs retreat ceremonies in Civil War uniforms at 7 p.m. every Tuesday, June through August.
Springfield`s Lincoln sites are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year`s). Guided tours are free.
Contact Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, 109 N. 7th St., Springfield, Ill. 62701; 217-789-2360 or 800-545-7300.
Conner Prairie, Noblesville, Ind.: Conner Prairie is a living-history museum depicting the lives of settlers in 1836. There are 39 buildings in the historic areas; a modern log cabin that serves as a nature/education center, a historic crafts center and a new $10 million, 65,000-square-foot museum center with galleries, a restaurant, gift shop, bakery and theater.
Tours begin in the museum center, where a 20-minute film explains the year 1836. An exhibit, ”Mothers to the Republic: Changing Lives of Hoosier Women” runs May 12 through Aug. 5, and examines the lives of Indiana women from 1836 to 1850.
Tours of the prairie village are self-guided. Here costumed first-person interpreters talk about ”their” lives in 1836 and perform the tasks of the day. Village buildings are original, built in the 1830s. They include pioneer homes, farm buildings, a schoolhouse and pottery, carpentry and blacksmith shops. Standing on its original location overlooking a 200-acre prairie is the William Conner estate, home of a fur trader who became an Indiana statesman. The 1823 Federal-style brick mansion is furnished with period pieces.
Conner Prairie holds numerous special events, including a hot-air
”Balloon Classic” May 26, and ”Symphonies on the Prairie” on Wednesday and Saturday evenings July 4 through Aug. 5. The historic areas are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m., May through October; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. in April and November; closed other months.
Admission $7 adults; $6.25 seniors; $4 ages 6-12; 5 and under free. Admission to the museum center is free. Noblesville is about 10 miles north of Indianapolis on U.S. Hwy. 31.) Contact Conner Prairie, 13400 Allisonville Rd., Noblesville, Ind. 46060-4499; 317-776-6000.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, Speedway, Ind.: There`s history of a different kind in this motor-sports museum. Set in the infield of the famed Hoosier ”Brickyard,” the museum records the history of Indianapolis` 500-mile race with a spectacular array of racing machines.
Exhibits feature more than 33 race winners, including the pointy-tailed Marmon ”Wasp” that Ray Harroun drove to victory in the first Indy 500 in 1911. A tribute to A.J. Foyt, the 500`s first four-time winner, features his winning cars. Nearby are the two cars involved in the closest 500 finish in history-1982, when Gordon Johncock defeated Rick Mears by 16/100 of a second. A video replays the last two laps of the race.
Exhibits include racing trophies, photos and drivers` equipment from the early days to the present. A 20-minute film features outstanding race footage. The gleaming, rainbow-hued cars chronicle the evolution of auto racing from the massive, boxy antiques of the early days to the low-slung, wide-tired, winged victors of today. Placards with photos provide information about each car.
The museum is at 4790 W. 16th St., Speedway, Ind. 46222; 317-241-2500
(enter through a tunnel under the track on 16th Street). Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, except Christmas. Admission $1, under age 16 free. Bus tours are $1 per person (not available when the track is in use for testing).
Amana Colonies, Iowa: Settled in the 1850s by members of a religious sect from Germany, Switzerland and France, the seven Amana Colonies-Amana (often called Main Amana), East Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana and Homestead still promote an Old World culture and lifestyle.
Century-old brick and sandstone houses line the quiet village streets, flower gardens abound, and such 19th-Century crafts as woodworking, broommaking, basketweaving and winemaking are still practiced.
Spread over a 15-square-mile area, the tiny villages seem made for browsing, with quaint shops and stores, some dating from the mid-19th Century. A dozen wineries offer tours and tasting.
At West Amana`s Broom and Basket Shop, you can watch artisans produce brooms on decades-old, hand-operated machines. Middle Amana`s Hahn Hearth Oven Bakery bakes mouth-watering breads and pasties in an oven dating from 1866. There are several furniture manufacturers in the colonies; Amana Woolen Mills (Main Amana) produce beautiful woolen goods.
Several museums tell the Amana story. They include the Museum of Amana History (Main Amana), Homestead`s Amana Home Museum and Blacksmith Shop, Middle Amana`s Community Kitchen Museum and the Barn Museum in South Amana. The museums are open every day from mid-April to mid-November and charge a modest admission fee. Only East Amana has no commercial establishments and is the least changed of the villages.
The Amana Colonies are 20 miles northwest of Iowa City. Contact Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau, Box 303, Amana, Iowa 52203;
319-622-3828 or 800-245-5465 (outside Iowa).
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Marquette, Iowa: Covering 1,475 acres along the bluffs of the Mississippi River, Effigy Mounds has almost 200 mounds built by Indians 500 to 2,500 years ago. Approximately 30 are effigy mounds in the shapes of birds and animals. A film at the visitors` center explains the history of the mounds; a museum displays pottery, tools and artifacts.
Self-guided trails lead to the mounds and spectacular views of the Mississippi. Guided tours are offered at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and at 1:30 and 3 p.m., Memorial Day through Labor Day. The monument is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day (until 7 p.m. in summer); closed Christmas.
The monument is three and one-half miles north of Marquette, on Iowa Hwy. 76 (opposite Prairie du Chien, Wis.). Admission is $1, under 16 free. Contact Effigy Mounds National Monument, Box K, McGregor, Iowa 52157; 319-873-3491.
