In spring and summer, Sheboygan is bratwurst and Sheboygan A’s baseball. In fall and winter, it’s bratwurst and Green Bay Packers football.
In any season, this city set on the shores of Lake Michigan is famous for its sausage–especially the spicy sausage called bratwurst. Indeed, Sheboygan has refined the manufacturing, preparation, serving and eating of brats (rhymes with shots) to an artform. The secret involves plenty of tender loving care–deemed so important that Sheboygan tourism officials will send you instructions on how to cook and eat a brat.
But there’s more to Sheboygan than brats. The city’s other cultural treasures include the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Partially housed in an Italianate villa built in 1882 by John Michael Kohler, founder of the Kohler Co. (manufacturer of plumbing products), the Arts Center is highly regarded for its approach to contemporary art and for seeking out of unusual art forms, materials and emerging artists. Three galleries feature changing exhibitions. The Arts Center also offers a wide variety of year-round performing arts programs that bring dancers, actors, story tellers and musicians from around the world to Sheboygan.
In winter, Sheboygan’s recently renovated downtown Harbor Centre district takes on a totally different look. Commercial fishing tugs pound through the ice of the frozen Sheboygan River to reach Lake Michigan’s open waters, and people hurry along the riverfront boardwalk at a brisk pace.
The sailboats and power yachts at the Harbor Centre Marina are safely ashore for the season, while the remains of the wooden schooner “Lottie Cooper” sail through time in adjacent Deland Park. Sunk during a storm in 1894, the Cooper’s wreckage was uncovered in 1992, during dredging operations for the marina and brought ashore for display. A brochure available from the Convention & Visitors Bureau tells you about the wreck and its history.
Sheboygan’s rich maritime heritage carries over to Kohler-Andrae State Park, located four miles south of town. More than 50 sailing vessels are known to have been wrecked and sunk in Lake Michigan waters off the park, and archaeologists have found Native American fishing artifacts among the sand dunes that date back to ancient times.
While the dunes have been declared a State Natural Area in order to protect the fragile ecosystems, you can enjoy their gritty beauty by following a scenic boardwalk trail. The park provides cross-country skiers with a groomed, two mile-long trail that follows a wooded nature trail, and keeps nearly 50 campsites open in winter (most have electricity). Winter can also be a good time for beachcombing on the park’s long, sandy beach. Many visitors come just to watch the deer and winter birds.
You can also enjoy winter activities at Sheboygan’s Maywood Environmental Park, set along the banks of the Pigeon River at the north edge of town. The 119-acre park has an extensive trail network, including three miles of cross-country ski trails and an Ecology Center with natural history exhibits and ecology programs.
When you’re ready for a change of pace, head west four miles on Hwy. 23 to Kohler, a striking village of broad, tree-lined streets that was built around the factories of the Kohler Co. Designed in 1917 by the Olmsted Brothers of Boston, who also designed New York’s Central Park and the campus of Harvard University, Kohler was one of the first planned communities in the United States.
The village centerpiece was The American Club, a sprawling dormitory-style hotel built in 1918 to house unmarried Old World immigrants who worked for the Kohler Co. Operated for the workers at cost, The American Club provided the immigrants with a home away from home–clean rooms, hot showers, good food and recreation. The American Club served the needs of Kohler’s workers for 60 years and was closed in 1978.
After three years of detailed, painstaking restoration, The American Club was reopened in 1981 and is today the Midwest’s only AAA “Five Diamond” resort hotel. Among the resort’s many amenities are nine restaurants (four located within the American Club); two 18-hole PGA championships golf courses designed by Pete Dye; a fitness and racquet club; and a 500-acre private nature reserve.
Other Kohler Co. attractions within the village include the Kohler Design Center, featuring bath and kitchen plumbing fixtures and accessories in more shapes, colors and styles than you ever imagined possible. Famous for its “Great Wall of China”–a floor-to-ceiling display of vitreous china fixtures stacked more than 40 feet high–the center’s displays include a designer room gallery, with 25 baths and kitchens showcasing the talents of national-recognized designers.
Exhibits in a lower level museum tell the story of Kohler Village and the firm that Austrian immigrant John Michael Kohler turned into the one of the oldest and largest privately held companies in the United States. Head of a business that produced steel and cast iron farm implements, Kohler got into the plumbing business in 1873 when he enamel-coated one of his horse troughs and sold it as a bathtub. The museum is filled with Kohler “firsts”: a dishwasher on the market in 1926, matching colors in plumbing fixtures 70 years ago, a Kohler generator used by Admiral Richard Byrd at Antarctica’s Little America station in 1929.
Free walking tours of the Kohler Co. factory leave from the Design Center Monday through Friday at 8:30 a.m. (except holidays). The three-hour tours visit the company’s pottery, brass building, foundry and enamel shop. Participants must be age 14 or older and reservations are required; make them at the Design Center.
You can also tour Waelderhaus, a three-story Old World-style structure similar to those found in the Bregenzerwald region of Austria, the ancestral home of the Kohler family. The building features hand carvings, woodcuts and iron and pewter work. Guided tours discuss Austrian life in the early 1800s.
Close by are the Shops at Woodlake Kohler, featuring clothing, leather goods, gifts, books, even a cooking school. Also located in the Woodlake complex is Artspace, a gallery of the John Michael Kohler Art Center, with exhibitions of contemporary painting, sculpture, photography and other art forms.
Sheboygan is located 145 miles north of Chicago. For additional information, contact the Sheboygan County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 712 Riverfront Dr., Suite 101, Sheboygan, Wis. 53081; 800-457-9497.
DETAILS ON SHEBOYGAN
– John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave.; 414-458-6144. Open Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 9 p.m. Thursday), Saturday and Sunday 12-5 p.m. Admission, free; fee for some events and programs.
– Kohler-Andrae State Park, 1520 Old Park Rd.; 414-451-4080. Open 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily, year-round. Vehicle sticker required for admission: daily $5, state resident, $7 non-resident; annual $18 resident, $25 nonresident. Camping fees, $8 per night resident, $10 per night non-resident; add $3 per night for sites with electricity.
– Maywood Environmental Park, 3615 Mueller Rd.; 414-459-3906. Park and trails open 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily; Ecology Center open Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. Admission free; fee for some programs.
– Kohler Design Center, 101 Upper Rd., Kohler; 414-457-3699. Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.
– Waelderhaus, 1100 W. Riverside Dr., Kohler; 414-452-4079. Tours at 2, 3 & 4 p.m. daily (except holidays). Free admission.
– The American Club, Highland Drive, Kohler, offers a double room for $155 to $295 per night, suites from $355 to $575 per night (through April 30); 800-344-2838.
