• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

A year after the twister, Old World counts its blessings

Photo

The general story at Old World Wisconsin.

When Old World Wisconsin opened for a new season a week ago, the historic site was nearly back to normal after last year's tornado that caused significant damage. RJ & Linda Miller Photography.

EAGLE — The twister that tore through the Eagle area last June could have made history of Old World Wisconsin.

While the museum, nestled against the Kettle Moraine State Forest in the town of Eagle, sustained enough damage to close for five weeks, officials here are counting their blessings.

The historic site opened for the season last Sunday.

“The good news for us is no historic buildings were destroyed,” says Old World Wisconsin Communications Director Lisa McGovern. “They were damaged, but not destroyed. We recovered everything, even the beehive and the smallest bees in it.”

On June 21, the EF2 tornado left a swath of destruction in Eagle and other nearby communities, but it left a beehive untouched. Surely, it’s one of nature’s great mysteries.

But for history lovers, and tens of thousands of area school children, that’s a good thing.

If you don’t know much about Old World Wisconsin, think of it as a sort of beehive itself. The workers in this colony don’t make honey, and there are no drones or queens, but they do collectively labor in the pursuit of a singular goal: Preserving the rural past.

Read the full story in the May 4, 2011 e-edition of Weekender HERE.