Just north of the Illinois border is the rolling hill countryside of Green County in southern Wisconsin. Known for Swiss traditions and cheesemaking heritage, you’ll find fun stuff to do in small communities like New Glarus, Monroe, and Brodhead. And you’ll also discover some surprising quirks and tasty curiosities to make your visit genuinely memorable.
Welcome to the Golden Age of Aviation! Brodhead’s Kelch Aviation Museum is best-known for its world-class collection of 20+ flyable biplanes. If you’re picturing pilots like Charles Lindbergh, and barnstormers wearing goggles and scarves, that’s exactly the right era. The years between the World Wars gave birth to innovations like air mail, ocean crossings, and aircraft designs that fueled the imaginations of a world obsessed with flight.
From outside on the grass runways at Brodhead Airport, to inside the museum’s airplane hangars featuring Smithsonian-style exhibits (with a bit of F. Scott Fitzgerald pomp mixed in), Kelch Aviation Museum is a bucket-list stop for aviation aficionados. How’s this for quirky: museum namesake Alfred Kelch is credited as inventor of the orange traffic cone.
The one and only Limburger producing creamery in the entire United States is right here in Monroe. Known for a robust and some would say “dis-stink-tive” flavor, Limburger is as delightful with onion and mustard on rye, as it is stacked on a buttery cracker topped with fruity jam. Shop the factory outlet store at Chalet Cheese Cooperative to buy a block to take home, or enjoy the full Limburger experience with a sandwich at Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern in downtown Monroe. Pay homage to this Green County tradition with your very own hoodie or t-shirt proclaiming “Limburger – the Cheese That Made Monroe Famous”. Available online at the Cheese Days Festival store.
See wheels of cheese being made at Emmi Roth in Monroe. Just walk in through the adjacent Alp and Dell Cheese Store, where a world of cheese awaits. Sample Emmi Roth’s famous Grand Cru Surchoix, an alpine delight that took honors as best cheese on the planet a few years back at the World Championship Cheese Contest. Bonus: much to the delight of cheese shoppers, store proprietor and Swiss native, Tony Zgraggen, is known to occasionally throw out a melodic yodel-ay-hee-hoo. Look for the guy with the big mustache.
Another alpine favorite is cheese fondue. Chef Mike Nevil can stir up a pot of this melty favorite for you at the Chalet Landhaus in New Glarus. Fondue is also on the menu at Glarner Stube in New Glarus, and the Ratskeller Restaurant at Turner Hall of Monroe.
Best curds in the world? Woot! Find them at their squeaky-fresh finest in Brodhead. Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Steve Stettler of Decatur Dairy took first place in the cheese curd category at the 2022 World Championship Cheese Contest.
Green County is famous for cheesy events! Every even year on the third weekend in September, downtown Monroe welcomes thousands of festival goers who will polka, yodel, and eat cheese by the truckload at Green County Cheese Days. Unique to this festival’s schedule is the Old Cheesemaking Demonstration, with local cheesemakers crafting a wheel of Swiss Emmentaler in a giant copper kettle. Tickets for the tasty trifecta “Beer, Bacon and Cheese” in New Glarus usually sell out shortly after being offered in April, with the event itself held in conjunction with Polka Fest in June. And a great way to wrap up the year is by joining revelers for Main Street Monroe’s official “Dropping of the Limburger” on New Year’s Eve.
Year 1793: French King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antionette are executed by guillotine in Paris. (Marie is the queen rumored to have said “let them eat cake” when she was told that the starving peasants had no bread.) Louis was the last king to reside at the Palace of Versailles, where he had spent many happy hours in his watch making workshop. But no more! The French monarchy is abolished, and Louis and Marie’s personal possessions are sold.
Year 1920: Intrepid traveler Edwin Barlow departs from New Glarus, Wisconsin, USA, to set sail on a ship to Florence, Italy. He’s on a mission to travel and collect things, but not just any things. He’s specifically looking for “objets d’art” – decorative, artistic, historic, and curiosities destined to be heirlooms. And thanks to a generous benefactor, he has money in his pocket. When he happens upon a jeweled watch for sale that once belonged to King Louis XVI, he snaps it up.
Today: Walk through the front door at Edwin’s former Swiss chalet home (gifted to the village of New Glarus), and see that jeweled watch at what is now the Chalet of the Golden Fleece Museum. Everything here has a story – fanciful oddities (poison spy ring, mystery box with secret hidden compartment), priceless treasures (monastery table from 1742), and intricate artifacts (Etruscan earrings, 600 B.C.).
Edwin was noted for his penchant for finding the extraordinary. A watch, worn more than 225 years ago by a famous king, proves that time travel is real, after all.
Visit a real farm with real cows, and see where that real good Green County cheese gets started. In addition to cows that need to be milked and calves that need to be fed at Wegmueller Farm, there are nearly two dozen horses and ponies ready for petting and photo opps.
Fourth-generation family farm owners Dan and Ashley also offer equine experiences and trail rides, plus riding and grooming lessons. You’ll also be delighted to meet Professor Paisley, Chonk, Porka, and Dot – the Wegmeuller’s passel of pizza-loving pigs. (Extra cheese, but please hold the pepperoni.) Bonus: wake up with the roosters when you spend the night at their farm-stay vacation home rental.