Architectural Genius & the Bizarre in Driftless Wisconsin

Glaciers that drifted across the upper Midwest tens of thousands of years ago bypassed the southwestern corner of Wisconsin. Instead of the flatlands that distinguish much of the region, a land of rugged bluffs overlooking shallow river valleys survived – Driftless Wisconsin.

The glaciers stayed away but dreamers, schemers and entrepreneurs have drifted into the region for more than 150 years. As early as 1856 Leroy Gates offered the first boat rides through the now grossly commercialized blufflands on the Wisconsin River at The Dells. The Ringling Brothers Circus made Baraboo their headquarters in 1884 and remains the home of the Circus World Museum.

The natural beauty of the Driftless Area also inspired a pair of 20th Century architects: Frank Lloyd Wright, a celebrated champion of organic architecture, and Alex Jordan Jr., whose House on the Rock pays homage to Wright but is better known for its vast collections of automated instruments, outlandish handguns, armor, model ships and more – a mix of real antiques, replicas and junk.

Wright’s iconic Taliesen home and studio near Spring Green stand just 10 minutes away from House on the Rock. We visited both for two very different experiences.

House on the Rock: OMG

The self-guided tour begins with a trip through the house, perched atop a 70-foot column of rock overlooking a forest. It might make a cozy country home for two. But among a crowd of visitors the house felt horribly cramped.

Uncomfortable-looking benches and furniture crowd dimly lit common rooms, contrasting oddly with spacious stone fireplaces. Worn carpeting covers the floor and oozes up the walls and across the low-slung ceiling. We saw little natural light aside from the Infinity Room, which doesn’t really qualify as living space. A 1985 addition with more than 3,000 windows, the room stretches 218 feet from the rock without supports.

After emerging briefly into sunshine, we descended into an hours-long meander through the dusty labyrinth housing the collections. Among them:

• The Music of Yesterday: Use tokens to activate mechanized instruments and bands that “play” clanky synthesized music.
• The Streets of Yesterday: Peer through shop windows stocked with vintage merchandise while an automated calliope crashes and toots at the end of a cobblestone street.
• The Heritage of the Sea, where display cases crammed with models and and memorabilia – much of it unmarked – spiral upward along a catwalk that circles a toothy, multi-story sea monster.

The grand finale features “the world’s biggest carousel,” which appears in the Neil Gaimon’s novel and television series “American Gods.” Some 269 carousel animals,182 chandeliers and 20,000 lights adorn the merry-go-round. (Find a video below.) Scores of mannequins dressed as angels hover overhead. A smaller companion carousel ridden by large dolls with dead eyes spins a level up.

As you probably are surmising, it’s all a little much. Gaimon agrees: “No photos can prepare you for the utter bugf–k weirdness of the House on the Rock.”

Taliesen: A 113-year-old Work in Progress

Our visit to Taliesen was an afterthought. We stopped at the gift shop on our way back to our hotel after immersing ourselves in the freaky and grotesque of House on the Rock. In need of a palate cleanser, we signed up for the guided two-hour “Highlights” tour of the house, studio and grounds.

There have been three Taliesens, born of genius, adultery, mayhem and bad wiring. Find some of the tawdry details here. Wright moved into Taliesen III in 1928 after nearly losing it to foreclosure. The architect died in 1959, but renovations and repairs at Taliesen have been a constant for nearly a century. Our guide said Wright might have preferred to see his home collapse back into the landscape.

Taliesen – Welsh for “shining brow” – sits atop a low ridge near the studio where Wright designed Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax Headquarters, and other classic buildings in his portfolio. Architectural fellowships were offered on site for decades until just a few years ago.

Taliesen exemplifies Wright’s Prairie School style of architecture. The home features an open floorplan, horizontal lines, arts and crafts details, and broad eaves that make for dramatic exits into the outdoors. Wright also is known for using cheap materials and loose adherence to structural standards at times. We spotted plywood throughout Taliesen, and shoring up a poorly engineered second floor is among current renovations. Wright-designed furnishings are notoriously uncomfortable. Visitors can try them out.

But we were there to learn a bit about this architectural innovator and complicated man, not sit on whimsical, chaeply crafted chairs beneath poor lighting. And our tour of Taliesen made for a pretty fine morning. Now if we could only unsee House on the Rock.

We spent three weeks enjoying friends, family and the wonders of the Great Lakes region of the United States in May and June 2023.