International Crane Foundation
Five minutes from the Windjammers Summer Meet hotel, you can see one of every species of crane in the World in natural habitats. The many varieties include the endangered Whooping Crane.
The story of the International Crane Foundation began in 1971 at Cornell University with two students who shared a passion for cranes. Ornithology students Ron Sauey and George Archibald envisioned an organization that would combine research, captive breeding and reintroduction, landscape restoration and education to safeguard the world’s 15 crane species. In 1973, with the generosity of the Sauey family – who rented their horse farm to Ron and George for $1 a year! – the International Crane Foundation “hatched” in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Over nearly 50 years, we have developed unique collaborations and led effective community-based conservation programs, important research projects and innovative captive breeding and reintroduction efforts. These endeavors have inspired international cooperation, helped improve livelihoods for people around the world and lead to the protection of millions of acres of wetlands and grasslands on the five continents where cranes live.
House on the Rock
For over 60 years, the House on the Rock has been a majestic work in progress. It began in 1945, when a man named Alex Jordan had a towering goal: to build a man-made retreat as awe-inspiring as the view from the rock upon which the house would eventually be built. From that spark of imagination, the House on the Rock has evolved to include displays and collections of the exotic, the unusual and the amazing that can be viewed as three separate tours.
Frank Lloyd Wright Home -Taliesin East
People see Taliesin in its many forms. Some see an amazing building, a beautiful setting, or a stage for stories about lives and mysteries embedded in its over 110-year-old history. We welcome you to share how your views of Wright, architecture, and the natural setting evolved after walking through Taliesin’s rooms and across its hills. We invite you to explore the ways Wright built what he described as the “abstract combination of stone and wood as they naturally met in the hills around and about;” and to discuss how Wright combined his architecture with art from China and Japan that he collected on his trips to Japan. Learning how America’s greatest architect lived and worked, how he designed a place that is both comfortable and stimulating, and how he embraced views of the lovely hills of Southern Wisconsin is made more meaningful when shared.
Taliesin is a unique architectural site because it records time. It combines designs and functions that changed over six decades of Wright’s residency and more than 60 years after his death in 1959. That evolution demonstrates how a building can maintain its character even as it adapts to change. Taliesin responds to its natural site and the life within it by accepting alterations and additions without compromising its initial concept. Taliesin is a place and a story of people who lived and worked here. We hope you join us in this community of appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s premiere demonstration of organic architecture that provides a setting for extraordinary living experiences.
Devil’s Lake State Park
About a half hour ride from the hotel, you can enjoy canoeing, picnicking and hiking. Wisconsin’s largest state park offers magnificent views from 500-foot Quartzite bluffs overlooking a 360-acre lake. Enjoy lakeshore picnic areas, sandy swimming beaches, bird watching, or ease into the backcountry solitude. A beautiful year-round park with an intriguing natural history along the 1000-mile Ice Age Trail.
Mid-Continent Railway Museum
Ride on a steam locomotive nearby. Mid-Continent is an outdoor living history museum and operating railroad recreating, preserving, and interpreting the small town/shortline way of life from the “Golden Age of Railroading.”
Circus World
Windjammers will be performing a concert on Saturday morning at 9:30 in the big top. You are welcome to stay for the circus performance and enjoy lunch and the remainder of the day browsing the exhibits, wagons and original winter home of the Ringling Bros. Circus.
Circus World is located at the National Landmark Site of the original Ringling Bros. Circus winter quarters on Water Street. These buildings are the largest and oldest group of circus structures in the United States, belonging to the largest circus enterprise the world has ever known.
At Circus World (and online) learn about the countless artifacts of circus history preserved and showcased here at Circus World through exhibits, online collections, library preservation, as well as photographs and wagons!
The Ringling’s used Baraboo as home base from 1884-1918. Over those 34 years, the brothers dreamed, built, and exported amazing wonders to eager audiences across America.
Step into the color, excitement and thrills of life under the Big Top at Circus World. Located at the original home of the Ringling Bros. Circus in Baraboo, this National Historic Landmark site examines the innovations, excitement and wonder of the American circus.
Through your self-guided tour of the grounds, you’ll explore seven massive buildings that bring to life the fascinating heritage of the more than 100 circuses that made their home in Wisconsin. You’ll experience the legendary lives and profound pageantry that fueled America’s most popular form of entertainment through engaging exhibits for all ages.
Be mesmerized by the largest collection of authentic wood-carved parade wagons, remarkable rail equipment, captivating costuming and astonishing artistry.
Bello Circus Themed Show in the Dells
Bello Nock and his famous friends deliver a jaw-dropping, edge-of-your seat extravaganza featuring mysterious magic, breathtaking stunts, amazing animals, marvelous musical productions and side-splitting comedy.
Bello’s Circus Extreme is for the entire family!
Bello Nock, a former Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus star, is known for his outrageous death-defying stunts. He holds 16 Guinness World Records, including the record for the longest unsupported tightrope walk and has performed on Broadway, in Madison Square Garden, and even under a helicopter hovering over the Statue of Liberty.
Bello’s Circus EXtreme Variety Show
564 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy S,
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53913
(608) 432-7469