Events

Events are subject to change. Please check back frequently.

2025 THEME: HEARTH & HOME

Explore the daily rhythms and traditions of home life among the diverse residents of the Fox-Wisconsin portage in 1832. Everyday life was considerably different than it is today. There were cultural and ethnic differences in the ways families and communities lived their lives here on the frontier, too. Each experienced its own unique essence of "hearth and home."

Events Flyer

Speaker Series Flyer

Family Campfire Series Flyer

Ho-Chunk Cultural Arts Day Flyer

Online History Series Video Documentary

Free Learning Guide

2025 Season Theme Video

FREE Printed-and-Bound Learning and Activity Guide

When you come for an event or tour, pick up a copy of our 2025 learning and activity guide, while supplies last. These annual themed books are family favorites! Also available online as a free pdf.

Printed books were made possible in part by grants from The Kohler Foundation; and Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Wisconsin. (Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.)

Calendar of Events

Our season opens today. Be the first in line to enjoy an informative, engaging tour. We are open for tours Wednesday through Sunday each week through October 15. Docent-guided tours are FREE this year! A donation is always appreciated.

Tours

Opening Day:

2025 Season

Thursday, May 15

10 am to 4 pm

The Historical Timekeepers will be on-site adding "living history" ambiance to the physical setting of your tour. Free event.

Living History

Tours

Sat-Sun, May 31-June 1

10 to 4 Sat | 12 to 3 Sun

Kids ages 5-10 will have a blast learning hands-on! Each child gets a free backpack loaded with 'Hearth & Home' themed resources and tools. Susan Apps-Bodilly will be with us, too! Brand new activities and backpack contents. If you came last year, come again! Pre-register. Free.

Workshop Details & Pre-registration

2nd Annual Kids'

Backpack Workshop

Saturday, June 7

1 to 3 pm (Rain date: June 8)

Inventing Childhood: Coming of Age in the New Republic. Dr. James Marten is Professor Emeritus at Marquette University. Free event.

Speaker Series Flyer

Speaker Series #1

Dr. James Marten

Tuesday, June 10

6:30 pm

Work alongside professional archaeologists. Spectating is free. To dig, a membership is required. Pre-registration for dig time(s) is recommended. Kids get a free t-shirt, too, while supplies last. (A fun activity for Father's Day weekend!)

Archaeology Dig Details

Archaeological

Dig Weekend #1

Sat-Sun, June 14-15

10 am to 4 pm

Come and watch a blacksmith at work. Explore the history, tools, and techniques of the trade as we endeavor to archaeologically locate the 1830s Agency blacksmith shop. Free.

Blacksmithing

Demonstrations

Sat-Sun, June 14-15

10 am to 4 pm

Work alongside professional archaeologists. Spectating is free. To dig, a membership is required. Pre-registration for dig time(s) is recommended. Kids get a free t-shirt, too, while supplies last.

Archaeology Dig Details

Archaeological

Dig Weekend #2

Sat-Sun, June 21-22

10 am to 4 pm

Come and watch a blacksmith at work. Explore the history, tools, and techniques of the trade as we endeavor to archaeologically locate the 1830s Agency blacksmith shop. Free.

Blacksmithing

Demonstrations

Sat-Sun, June 21-22

10 am to 4 pm

The Wisconsin Dells Singers & Dance Troupe of the Ho-Chunk Nation will perform at 1 pm. Free event for the whole family. Music and dance have been integral and distinctive parts of "hearth and home" experiences across cultures throughout history.

Cultural Arts Day Flyer

Ho-chunk Music

and Dance

Saturday, June 28

Performance at 1 pm

Ho-Chunk Basket

Weaving Workshop

Saturday, June 28

10 am to 12 pm OR 2-4 pm

Renowned Ho-Chunk basket weaver Kimberly Crowley will help you make a black ash basket of your own! Ages 14-adult. Choose 10am-12pm or 2-4pm. Free, thanks to a grant ($75 value!).

Cultural Arts Day Flyer

Preregister Here

Ho-Chunk

Cultural Arts

Saturday, June 28

10 am to 4 pm

Learn more about Indigenous arts as Ho-Chunk artisans demonstrate their craft.

Cultural Arts Day Flyer

Speaker Series #2

Vicki Twinde-Javner

Tuesday, July 8

6:30 pm

Daily Life at Frontier Forts: Archaeology Yields Evidence. Vicki Twinde-Javner is a Senior Research Archaeologist at the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center. Free event.

Speaker Series Flyer

Back for a fifth year with fantastic hands-on experiences! Try your own hand at over 2 dozen historical skills (including lots of brand new stations + some favorite standbys) for ages five through adult. Free event.

Station Details and Map

Enduring Skills

Weekend

Sat-Sun, July 26-27

10 to 4 Sat | 12 to 3 Sun

Speaker Series #3

Tamara Funk

Tuesday, August 12

6:30 pm

Haste to the Wedding: Philosophies & Customs of Euro-American Courtship and Weddings in the 18th-20th Centuries. Tamara Funk is a Curator at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Free event.

Speaker Series Flyer

Juliette Kinzie lived at the Indian Agency here in Portage in the early 1830s. Join Kathe Crowley Conn around the campfire to hear her tell Juliette’s fascinating firsthand stories about what it was like to live in this place almost 200 years ago. Free event for the whole family.

Campfire Series Flyer

Campfire Series:

"Mrs. Kinzie"

Saturday, September 13

6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Learn all about the fascinating Euro-American mourning and burial traditions of the 1830s with The Galena Living History Society. Birth, marriage, and death were intimate parts of home & family experiences in the 1800s - different than today. The special tours begin in the visitor center from 10-12 & 1-3. Free event.

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Mourning and

Funerals in 1832

Sat., September 20

10 to 4

Campfire Series:

"Voyageur"

Saturday, October 4

6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

French voyageurs were a unique lot with their own captivating hearth & home customs. Hear "Jacques Largillier" (Glenn Gorsuch) tell in first-person what voyageur life was like in 1832. Free event for the whole family.

Campfire Series Flyer

Hear accomplished storyteller Andi Cloud (Niizuwii, "Rain Woman") tell traditional Ho-Chunk stories. Winter storytelling has been a part of Ho-Chunk life rhythms for centuries, and the stories themselves have something to say about life. Free event for the whole family.