Fight the FOMO with our guide to the Great Milwaukee Summer. We've got the hottest places to eat, drink, hang out, and all the things you love to do. Brought to you by Geis Garage Doors and UPAF (United Performing Arts Fund)!
If high-tech drones don’t quench your thirst for “tradition” this Independence Day, why not celebrate Independence Day like Wisconsin settlers did in the 19th century at Old World Wisconsin in Eagle?
Tickets are available now for the annual Independence Day Weekend event at Wisconsin Historical Society’s living museum, July 4-5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There will be old fashioned fun for the entire family, including a spelling bee, a children’s parade (adults can join in, too!), picnic food, butter churning, live music, games, entertainment and even a chance to meet the mayor as he reads the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Four Mile House.
Best of all there will also be a pie eating contest. Does it get any better than that?
Of course, while you’re there you can also visit the 60 restored historic homes, farms, stores and workshops that dot the 600-acre site in the Kettle Moraine State Forest.
One of those – St. Peter’s Church – was the first Catholic church to be erected in Milwaukee when it went up on the corner of State and Jackson in 1839. (It was moved in 1975 to Old World Wisconsin, which opened the following year.)
Be sure to check in with brewer Rob Novak to see what’s bubbling in the brew kettle in the old world brewhouse and check out the newly restored and opened Wittnebel Tavern and beer garden right next door.
You can read more about that here.
Also when you’re there, check out the work that’s started on the new entrance and pathway into the separate villages within the facility.
Tickets are $20 for ages 13-64, $18 for seniors 65 and up, $13 for children ages 5-12, and free for kids under 5.
Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society get in free, so consider joining and enjoy Old World Wisconsin and other WHS benefits all year long, while supporting this important organization.
Old World Wisconsin is located at W372 S9727 Hwy. 67 in Eagle.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
