Wisconsin Holidays

The state has over 14,000 lakes, of which Winnebago is the largest. Water sports, ice-boating, and fishing are popular, as are skiing and hunting. The 95 state parks, forests, and recreation areas take up one-seventh of the land.
Among the many points of interest are the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Ice Age National Scientific Reserve; the Circus World Museum at Baraboo; the Wolf, St. Croix, and Lower St. Croix national scenic riverways; and the Wisconsin Dells.
Among the many historical sites and museums in the state, two are particularly noteworthy. The Circus World Museum in Baraboo collects and displays artifacts and other materials from circuses around the world (both the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuses got their start in Wisconsin). Many of its wagons and other paraphernalia are used in Milwaukee’s annual circus parade. Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor living history museum of 19th-century rural life some 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Milwaukee, preserves historical farm and village buildings. Guides dressed in period clothing work fields with antique farm equipment and teams of oxen and horses.

Some 120,000 acres (50,000 hectares) of state parks and millions of acres in national, state, and county forests are available for recreational use in Wisconsin. Most of the public forests are in the north, although there is a park within an hour’s drive of just about any location in the state. The sparsely settled, heavily forested northern glacial region is the epitome of the Northwoods, with clear streams and hundreds of lakes for fishing and water sports. Among the more interesting vacation areas is the Door Peninsula, between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, with miles of rocky shoreline and sandy beaches and five state parks. It is largely forested but has cherry and apple orchards, summer cottages, small coastal villages, arts-and-crafts shops, and a summer theatre.

One of the least-known areas of the state but one deserving more attention is the scenic hill-and-valley country of the Western Upland, with its steep, wooded slopes, bare rock bluffs and towers, tree-lined back roads winding through quiet pastoral scenes that include many Amish farmsteads and preserved homes of Cornish lead miners in Mineral Point, and at Merrimac, the only remaining car ferry across the Wisconsin River.

Wisconsin Tourist Attractions

• Wisconsin State Capitol

• Harley – Davidson Museum

• Circus World Museum

• The Dells of the Wisconsin River

• Door County

• Land o’ Lakes

• The House on the Rock

• Lake Geneva

• Green Bay

• Kenosha

• Devil’s Lake State Park

• Interstate State Park