In the 1970's, Wisconsin researchers traveled throughout the sate looking for authentic historic buildings representing generations of Wisconsin settlers. Over 60 of these historic buildings were then painstakingly moved piece by piece, literally numbering boards, bricks and logs to reconstruct them in what would become the largest outdoor museum of rural life in the United States known as "
Old World Wisconsin".
Located about 35 miles from Milwaukee, and just outside the small town of Eagle, Old World Wisconsin opened in 1976, and features villages and farms representing various times and cultures of 19th and 20th Century life in the state.