For day 4 of our American Heartland tour, we were able to go to House on the Rock in Spring Green, WI. If you've never been there before, it is a huge house that is quite literally, on a rock. It contains 14 different rooms of collections, from the organ room to a sword room, as well as containing a nice layout of the entire history of how the building became to be.
The history part to it was not only wholesome, but also very neat to figure out as it was almost an accident for this to become an attraction for tourists. It all began in 1940s when a guy named Alex Jordan decided to build a shelter on a 60 ft chimney of a rock in someone's field. The person with the field sold that section to Alex in order for him to continue with his dream of building a weekend resort for himself. However, his friends were always coming to check it out and see what it was all about. While Alex wasn't really expecting that, he began to charge 50 cent to those who wanted to see it.
It became extremely popular to the pubic and caught the attention of almost everyone. However, when visiting this place, it is most certainly not an ordinary museum. It is actually a lot more than that. When Alex was creating this place, he wanted to dedicate a place where he could demonstrate all of his intuitions and his interests in one setting. He was a collector and wanted to continue to collect in order for it to become more than just a museum.
This helped him create the world's largest inside carrousel - which hold 269 animals, 182 lanterns, over 20,000 lights, and hundreds of angels that are displayed on the walls and the ceiling. This had definitely become more than just a museum, but rather a way to see what Alex Jordan was imagining when he thought of his own, personal get away.
Anyways, that's enough of this history! Overall, the visit to the House on the Rock was an exciting time. I had already went through the self-guided tour last summer, but it was so amazing to go through it again and to see everything I missed the first time! Dr. Hancock had shared his love for the place, which is something we both share.
Lastly, I wanted to add this picture of a penny we could make in the house! In the section with the ocean life, there was a HUGE whale right in the middle of the room. In front of it was a machine that took pennies that we could roll out and make a design with. The design on my penny is the whale we saw in the section with the words written "The House on the Rock, The World's Largest Sea Creature." Today was both thrilling and eye opening at the same time!
-Camilla Wright, 1st year flutist from Grinnell, IA