Saturday, in a continuation of our Family Summer Northern European Tour Wisconsin Time Machine Style, we got a taste (literally) of the British Isles. Cornwall, to be specific. (In an effort to help my kids give half a hoot about about Cornwall, we got out a map of the U.K. I told them Cornwall was on the very bottom...blank stares...and Coach Gary's Scotland is at the top...hooray--delighted children! Thank you, Coach Gary, for making Britain slightly more interesting to my children.) In this case, Cornwall was the town of Mineral Point.
We went there to see the old stone houses, built by Cornish immigrants in the 1830s and 40s.
It was beautiful! And it really did feel like we had traveled to a different country. There were moments when Greg and I would both have these flashes of "Wow! It feels like we could be in a European village. For real." I guess this whole Wisconsin way of touring Europe kind of works!
We first visited the Wisconsin Historical Society's site in town, Pendarvis, which is a collection of Cornish stone cottages that were saved from demolition and restored during the 1920s and 30s. The buildings now house exhibits on early mining in the area. It is a lovely, lovely site, especially with all the summer flowers and foliage.
Meet our adorable tour guides.
They studied the map...
and then led the way up, down, in, out, and all around.
Much like Little Switzerland, it's an easy and fun self-guided tour--the maps are simple and the buildings clearly labeled, so kids really can lead the way. Between letting them lead the way and reminding them of Coach Gary, we were able to tour the site with minimal (zero?!) whining.
We were all--especially David--very interested in the mining information. Anything involving sharp and/or dangerous objects is interesting to David these days. If it looks like a weapon, it must be a weapon--and automatically exciting in David's book. Which is why he insisted on taking this picture...
Now you're going to get a little history on mining in Wisconsin. Excited? (Hey, at least I'm not talking about T.E. Lawrence anymore.)
First, a trivia question. Do you know why Wisconsin is the Badger State? (Hint. It has nothing to do with badgers.) So, I've been in Wisconsin long enough to know the answer to that question: Some of the first European settlers in Wisconsin were miners in the Mineral Point area, where iron ore had been discovered. Rather than build cabins or homes, they simply lived in holes they dug out in the ground, earning themselves the nickname of "badgers." Now you know.
I also knew that there had been a large group of Cornish immigrants in Wisconsin who came to mine. What I did not know was that the "badgers" and the folks from Cornwall were not one and the same. Now we get into the history part...
In 1827 large, shallow deposits of iron ore were discovered in the area around Mineral Point. Settlers of various backgrounds, but primarily from Illinois, flocked to Mineral Point in hopes of making a living off mining the easily extracted ore. At the time, the U.S. Government owned the land and it could only be leased. Because the settlers did not/could not buy the land they worked, the miners had little incentive to make improvements, like build homes or other permanent structures. That's why they literally lived in holes in the ground.
By the 1840s, the shallow deposits of ore had been exhausted, and extracting the deeper ore was becoming difficult. But at just that time, over in Cornwall, where there lived a plethora of highly skilled miners, food was becoming scarce. An exodus from Cornwall began, and those highly skilled laborers improved mining operations all over the world, including Wisconsin. Just as the "badgers" realized they did not know how to dig deeper, the Cornish arrived with generations of knowledge of deep-shaft mining.
The immigrants from Cornwall were fleeing a scarcity of food, as well as religious oppression--the Methodist Cornish population wasn't so keen on being forced to support the Anglican state church. By this time, land in Wisconsin could be sold, and the immigrants looked forward to the opportunity of purchasing land, which would allow them to farm and mine. The town of Mineral Point flourished.
Speaking of mining. Look at this picture. A water well?
Nope, it's a mine shaft. (Now I can threaten my kids with sending them down a rusty bucket into a mine shaft when they misbehave.)
Here's what it looks like down there.
Yikes. What amazes me is the equipment (or lack thereof). We realized they did all their mining by candlelight!
These two pictures of Mary concluded our visit to Pendarvis. And, no, my daughter can't keep her tongue in her mouth.
Across from Pendarvis is the Merry Christmas Mine Hill, where there are a number of trails through the prairie that take you by some old remains of the area's mining heyday. There are even old badger holes! I wanted to see one of those...but the sun was burning us and the humidity was drowning us. And Greg and I weren't quite ready for the inevitable chorus of whining that would ensue. So I think we'll head back there another day for a look at the badger holes and rusty equipment.
But we weren't ready to leave Mineral Point yet. We still wanted that taste of Cornwall! Descendants of those early Cornish settlers still cook like their ancestors. So we headed downtown and stopped in here for some local grub.
Great place! (Not least of all because of the awesome wallpaper.)
David and Mary enjoyed pancakes and crayons.
Meanwhile, Greg and I feasted on that quintessential Cornish food--the pasty (which, by the way, rhymes with nasty, not tasty.) It's a half-moon shaped pie filled with beef, potatoes, onions, and sometimes rutabaga.
Simple. And delicious. (The crust! The crust was perfect!)
I love that pasties are plentiful in Mineral Point--and they're not just for the tourists. The pasty a staple for the locals.
We didn't stop with pasties, though. We also got some figgyhobbin to go.
Did I mention my daughter can't keep her tongue in her mouth?
After lunch, we took a little driving tour around town. So lovely. And it's so easy to imagine that you stumbled into a village in the British countryside. There are hundreds of Cornish buildings still standing in town. You can even buy one for yourself!
Later, at home, Greg and I enjoyed the figgyhobbin.
Yum! Seriously, so yum. It's a dessert of raisins, walnuts, and brown sugar sprinkled over a pie-crust dough, rolled up and baked. It sounds nice and all--but not something I would necessarily swoon over. But this was swoon-worthy.
I think it was the pie-crust. It was perfect. Perfect! (I think I gained a new appreciation for a perfect pie crust that day. Whether it's wrapped around beef or brown sugar, it can make you swoon.)
Did I say yum?
You want to know something interesting about figgyhobbin? (Of course you do.) It came to Mineral Point with the Cornish immigrants and still remains strong here today...but it's nearly died out in back in Cornwall. A piece of Cornish culinary history is preserved just down the road from us. (I'm still trying to convince David and Mary that our car is a time machine. This should prove it.)
It was a wonderful visit. My pictures fail to capture the cuteness/quaintness/uniqueness. Trust me, Mineral Point is a marvelous day trip from Madison. (And a little cheaper than a plane and train to Cornwall.)
Last up is Norway! Coming soon?
