As you know, 2020 has been a year like no other. It's kind of like a Circus, right! We set out on a journey back on June 13, 2020, after waiting for an end to the pandemic. We have kept our plans very fluid. We check the news before we leave making certain we are not going to be traveling through any riots or any other unsafe conditions. We have generally stayed away from large cities. We changed our plans a lot, but here we are in the middle of August still waiting for an end to Covid.
So while staying in Wisconsin Dells, we went for a drive thru the country side. We happened upon a pretty little town, called Baraboo, a town is full of beautiful Victorian homes from the 1800's. It just so happens to be where Ringling Brothers started their circus in 1884. What was once the home of their circus headquarters is now Circus World Museum. There was a sign that said a reservation was needed to take a tour. So, we went into their office to make a reservation. Our tour began in half an hour with only 11 people.
As it turns out, this was a scaled down version of what guests can normally enjoy. In a normal year, you could probably spend a day enjoying live animal shows and clown acts. Our tour consisted of a tour of a large circus wagon barn. We were also shown the outside of the original buildings, such as the elephant barn. Its kind of fun to stand on the grounds where Ringling Brothers began. You can close you eyes and try to imagine what it was like years ago, with all the circus acts training. I'll bet it was an incredible site to see. This is a Circus museum, not just Ringling Brothers, so the wagon barn is full of wagons from many different circuses. They have been restored to like new condition. Oh, if only the wagons could talk, what would they tell us?
Below is a video of a Gavioli Bandwagon made in 1905, it had been used by Royal American Shows railroad company. Be patient after you hit the play button it took about 15 seconds to build up air and play. You might recognize the song " The Liberty Bell" as it was used in Monty Pythons Flying Circus.
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The car on the right was used by all the clowns as they toured from site to site, the car on the left was used by the set up and advertising people of the circus. |
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This wagon was used by Disneyland and donated to the museum |
