in Shake Rag Alley
We visited one of my favorite towns in southwestern Wisconsin this weekend – Mineral Point. As one of the oldest settlements in Wisconsin, this is a town filled with much history, and also with many, many old buildings. The photograph is of one of the original cabins in Mineral Point, built about 1828.
See the little concrete elf peeking out the window? Love that elf!
Mining was big in Mineral Point from 1827 until the 1860s and roughly half the citizen’s had their roots in Cornwall. Lead ore was abundant if you were willing to do the work, and at peak, the town’s miners and furnaces were producing nearly 44,000 pounds of lead every day. The original homes of some of these Cornish miners have been restored at one of Wisconsin’s State Historical Sites, Pendarvis.
And this town even comes with its own bit of trivia. Q: What famous TV game show host was born and buried here? A: Allen Ludden, host of Password in the 1960s and 70s. Remember Allen Ludden on Password? Remember when he and Betty White were married? They were married for nearly 18 years, until his death in 1981.
Ludden ended each show with a password of the day. I loved collecting those words; even as a child I loved to play with words. I wrote the daily passwords in a black and white notebook after every show. He would end the show the same way every day, although the word, of course, was always different.
“And the password of the day is appreciate. So long, see you tomorrow, I hope.”
by Bo Mackison
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