AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is Part 2 of our trip to Wisconsin.
We visited the House on the Rock on Thursday, July 11, 2019.
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Down a long private drive in Spring Green, Wisconsin…
…after several dragon flower pots…
…there is a welcome center for a place called the House on the Rock…
…a retreat built on Deer Shelter Rock that is claimed to have been built by Alex Jordan, Jr. (I won’t get into the various claims).
Through the Asian Garden…
…visitors can enter the Alex Jordan Center…
…read about the site’s history and development…
…and then enter the original House on the Rock…
…filled with Asian decor…
…automated musical machines…
…and a nearby Infinity Room…
…making for the perfect photo op.
But the original house and Infinity Room only make the beginning of the House of the Rock tour (they’re the bottom right green items on the map).
For, once you enter the Mill House entrance…
…the tour gets more surreal, thanks to all sorts of taxidermied animals…
…antique displays…
…creepy dolls…
…suspended puppets…
…all sorts of guns…
…(many of which are likely just the products of fantasy)…
…armor…
…sculpted ivory…
…tons of mechanical entertainment…
…and still more automated music machines to delight/overwhelm the senses.
There are sections devotes to the Streets of Yesterday…
…with all its various storefronts and window displays…
…and the Heritage of the Sea, where a sea creature stretches out its tentacles…
…to attack an enormous whale.
There’s a room dedicated to organs…
…and another to the Circus…
…with memorabilia…
…miniature displays…
…and a full mechanical musical orchestra (not operational during my visit).
But the most memorable room is the Carousel Room, holding the world’s largest carousel…
…with 269 animals…
…none of them being horses…
…for they hang on the walls of the Carousel Room…
…to keep the hanging angels company.
And for those who didn’t get enough dolls on their tour…
…I should mention that there is also a Doll Carousel that looks innocent enough along the lower levels…
…but gets rather creepy once you get to the top.