The Wisconsin Historical Museum is free and right near the capitol. It has four floors of exhibits and depending on how in depth of a museum goer you are, you could visit in about an hour. There are two elevators to take you to the various floors so no stair climbing involved.
The first floor is dedicated to changing exhibits. Currently there is a shipwreck exhibit. Or should I say three walls of shipwreck photos from around Lake Michigan. I think I counted 6 or 7 different shipwrecks.... maybe. I personally liked the Christmas tree wreck. There was also a display of deep sea diving equipment... nothing I've not seen before.
On the second floor, the early history of Wisconsin was illustrated... Native Americans and Fur Trappers along with the first settlers. Again nothing I've not seen before. There was a really cool map of the Native American Tribes from the 1600s and today. The contrast is incredible.
By this time I was feeling disappointed as I've not really seen anything new or really interesting. The museum was not keeping my interest.
The third floor started to get a bit more interesting and probably was my favorite floor. The was a walk through lead mine and talked about the immigration to Wisconsin but by far the last third of the room was my favorite.
Here I saw a Nash Car, a Case Tractor I could actually sit in, a Harley Davidson Motorcycle, and a whole display dedicated to items that were once made in Wisconsin. It was bright, colorful, and actually made the trip to the museum worth it.
After learning about Wisconsin products, we moved to the fourth floor which mainly was political in nature. I wasn't feeling very political and didn't really care for the exhibits. I probably should have paid more attention to them and read about our political history but I was over this museum by then.
There were also prints of different sports in Wisconsin. Prints are nice... artifacts are better.
Honestly I was not impressed. It was a nice museum but I feel like it's the same old stuff in every museum lately. I get it is the Wisconsin Historical Museum and tells the history of Wisconsin but can we at least make it interactive? Lift the flap, touch the screen, something so I'm not wandering through what feels like the same old history in a different museum.
Now if you haven't checked out nearly all the history museums in Eastern Wisconsin, this museum is worth the stop. It is very nicely done but the history of Wisconsin can only be presented so many ways.
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