Thanks to the last glacier, Elkhart Lake is amply endowed with curves - just the kind of curves a race-car driver appreciates. In 1949, the old lake-resort town was struggling. Then millionaire sportsman Jim Kimberly, scion of the Kimberly-Clark paper fortune in Neenah, began looking for a local place to race his cars.
Go to story ...It all began with an enameled horse trough/hog scalder. It grew into an empire that includes a five-diamond resort, a collection of upscale shops, an innovative art center, a foundation that rescues Wisconsin folk art and, in fact, an entire town that's so perfect it's almost eerie. That horse trough evolved, too, into such products as the Body Spa, a futuristic shower stall with a waterfall and 10 jets that pummel tired muscles with 80 gallons of water per minute.
Go to story ...The man with the big, Dentyne smile and Marlboro voice slammed his fist into his palm. "Okay, here's the game plan,'' he bellowed. "No. 1! You WILL see Lambeau Field. You WILL see the press box. You WILL see the executive skyboxes. You WILL sit in the club seats and see a video. "So where are you all from? How many of you are not Packer fans? Ma'am, you have my condolences. The rest of this group, we know the Packers are the best team in the NFL this year.
Go to story ...The forest was quiet and the afternoon still. Unnaturally still. Fifteen Union Army infantry units were camped around wagons in a meadow, near artillery and cavalry. Along a split-rail fence, a drum-and-fife corps pounded drums and blew trumpets. Gunners began to load their muskets. The cavalry got on pawing horses. Then a Union skirmish line marched down the meadow, followed by a tight column of infantrymen.
Go to story ...Once, every child in America celebrated Christmas without battery-operated toys. Instead, they played flap jacks and dominos. They made paper ornaments for the tree. They got an orange brought all the way from Florida. That's still what kids do during Christmas time at Old World Wisconsin, where it's always the 19th century. Danish, Norwegian, German, Polish, Finnish and Yankee families toil there, trying to get ahead on the American frontier.
Go to story ...On a spring morning in east-central Wisconsin, two geese suddenly shattered the stillness, honking urgently. Yellow warblers zoomed down from trees and out of sight. Redwing blackbirds clung to cattails, swaying in the stiffening wind. It was only 6:30 a.m., but it was rush hour on the Horicon Marsh. A human here feels oddly out of place, a lumbering interloper on a fast-moving avian freeway. Birds own this marsh, and they aren't shy about saying so, rending the air with trills and tweets as they go about their business.
Go to story ...In the middle of southern Wisconsin farmland, there's a mystery that rivals those of the Mayans and Anasazi. It noted the retreat of the glaciers 143 lifetimes ago and then directed me 1½ miles northward, to where, "17 lifetimes ago, an ancient civilization flourished."
Go to story ...We all know Milwaukee for its beer, bratwurst and oompah bands. But not many people know it's also a great place for bicycling. Sure, there's a constant stream of bicyclists on the lakefront stretch of the Oak Leaf Trail. From Lake Michigan, bicyclists can veer off onto a secluded stretch of the Milwaukee River or head toward Miller Park on the Hank Aaron Trail.
Go to story ...In summer, overheated tourists head for the Cool City. Swimmers can cool off with a dip from Neshotah Beach, a great strip of sand, but there's an even better one five miles north, where Rawley Point Lighthouse towers over the dunes of Point Beach.
Go to story ...If you've ever walked in Wisconsin, chances are you've walked on the edge of a glacier. The ice is gone, but not the rubble it pushed across the landscape, or the rock its melting waters carved. As the last glacier retreated, it left a path that geologists can follow as easily as yellow lines on a highway. That path now is the 1,100-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail, with 620 miles marked, usually by yellow rectangles tacked to trees. It's easy to follow in the forest, but many of the most spectacular spots are right along highways.
Go to story ...In its entire 150-year history as a resort town, Elkhart Lake rarely has been a sedate place. The early resort owners loved entertainment and built opera houses, dance halls and theaters. Then they put in casinos, and gambling became so commonplace that placing a bet was like buying an ice-cream cone; everybody did it. The town was a little bit Catskills, a little bit Vegas and a lot of Chicago.
Go to story ...When a small town is about as pleasing as can be, what else can it do? Why, make sure everyone notices, of course. In 1972, an old Yankee mill town just north of Milwaukee started a Wine & Harvest Festival. Two years later, it started Winter Festival.
Go to story ...No one knows how to celebrate Christmas like the Germans. It's thanks to them that Americans decorate Christmas trees, hang wreaths and put nutcrackers on mantels. Because of them, we bake gingerbread men, open Advent calendars and fill stockings with treats. Still, not every German Christmas tradition has crossed the Atlantic.
Go to story ...The last years have been busier than ever for the market: For a buck or two, anyone can find a treasure, even if it's a bag of marbles or a freshly baked pastry.
Go to story ...As far as most people know, there's nothing but sausage in Sheboygan. This town on Lake Michigan is the bull's-eye of brats, for sure, and serious eaters go straight for a double on Sheboygan hard roll. But serious sightseers come to Sheboygan for other reasons: for surfing, for quirky sculptures, for sand dunes.
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