Platteville Dairy Days

2022 is the 75th annual celebration.

media release:

Friday, September 9, 2022

8:00 a.m. Flea Market Opens

5:00 p.m. Carnival by Christman Amusements; Food & Beverage Vendors Open

7:00 p.m. Tri-County Mini Rods and Fantasy Truck Pull (Admission $10, 10yrs & under free, pit entrance $15)

7:00 p.m. Dairy-oke Contest, Main Stage (FREE Admission; sign up begins at 6 p.m.)

Saturday, September 10, 2022

7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Junior & Open Exhibits accepted at Broske Center for judging

8:00 a.m. Flea Market resumes

9:30 a.m. Parade down Main Street

11:00 a.m. Dairy Cattle in place; noon Dairy Cattle Show, Livestock Tent

11:15 a.m. Music by The Real Beals, Main Stage

12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Junior & Open Exhibits on display (pick up 4-5 pm)

12:00 p.m. Carnival by Christman Amusements

12:00 p.m. Yankee Dutchman Solar Powered Marching Band, Main  Stage

12:30 p.m. Parade Awards Presentation – Main  Stage

1:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. The Magic of Jim Mitchell, Main Stage

1:00 p.m. Jaycee Bean Bag Tournament, sign up at beer stand

2:00 p.m. HD Academy Dancers

5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Music by The 2 Carls

6:00 p.m. Dairy Days Open Tractor Pull (admission $10, 10 yrs. & under free, pit entrance $15)

8:30 p.m.  Music by Adam Bartels Band, Main Stage (FREE Admission)

Sunday, September 11, 2022

8:00 a.m. Flea Market resumes

10:30 a.m. United Methodist Church Service, Main Stage

11:00 a.m. Dairy Goats in place; noon Dairy Goat Show, Livestock Tent

12:00 p.m. Food & Beverage Vendors Open; Carnival by Christman Amusements

12:00 p.m. Dairy Days Cash Raffle Drawing, Main Stage

12:15 p.m. Music by The Wundos

1:00 p.m. Kiddie Tractor Pull

Also: The 24th annual Platteville Historic Re-enactment will make a much-anticipated in-person comeback during Dairy Days weekend September 9 to 11 at the city of Platteville’s Mound View Park after a two-year hiatus. Held every year since 1998, the three-day Platteville Historic Re-enactment showcases the history of America’s Upper Mississippi Valley from the mid-1700s to 1840, featuring educators, artisans, and re-enactors taking part in a diverse encampment welcoming some 3,000 visitors per year. With one full day focused on welcoming schools and two days welcoming the general public, Historic Re-enactment is one of the most popular attractions of Dairy Days weekend each September. The presenters of this event create a camp in Mound View Park and take special pride in its educational and participatory spirit. Each of nearly 30 camp sites represents a team of historians and educators who focus on a particular historical theme. There is no admission fee, but free-will donations are encouraged.

The event is organized with cooperation between a citizen’s committee, the Platteville Regional Chamber of Commerce, and The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums. By design, the Platteville Historic Re-enactment is distinct from other re- enactments. By invitation only, the Platteville Historic Re-enactment is primarily educational rather than commercial in nature, and creates a family friendly environment with carefully curated participants that distinguish it from other similar re- enactment events around the nation. Whereas at other re-enactments visitors who wish to shop might expect to purchase crafts from individual vendors, in Platteville re-enactors typically do not vend except for food artisans. Rather, shoppers will enjoy visiting the silent auction for hand-crafted history-related items ranging from cast-iron skillets to hand-carved wooden objects and other singular treasures. Revenues supplement contributions and City of Platteville support for the benefit of the event.

Folks new to town from other parts of the world or the United States might have experienced other popular participatory living history events such as medieval fairs (16th century England) or reenactments of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) or Civil War (1861-1865) time periods. However, Platteville’s re-enactment is distinctive to our region, focusing on an exciting time relevant to our place — the time when America was established but still young and Americans were pushing west to the frontier before Wisconsin became a territory (1836) and eventually a state (1848).

Why mid-1700s to 1840? It was a time when large Native American tribes, fur-trading companies, and foreign nations were competing for resources in our region and the United States government had a strategic need for lead, which drove international mineral prospectors to the Upper Mississippi Valley. It is helpful to recall that when the United States won its independence from the British crown, as part of its negotiation of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, King George offered the United States a huge swath of Midwestern land known as the Northwest Territory to keep the valuable resource away from France and Spain. Ultimately, five states — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin — plus a small part of Minnesota were organized from the Northwest Territory. The Mississippi River was the major international superhighway that connected regions from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Within the Northwest Territory, our way of life here in the lead- zinc mining district of the Upper Mississippi Valley was distinct enough that it called for its own re-enactment.

The Platteville Historic Re-enactment brings this exciting time in our region’s history to life with camps of educational re- enactors who show what it was like when everybody got together in key geographic landmarks each summer for a huge rendezvous for socializing, trading, and celebration. Each camp portrays a culture that played a role in what is now southwestern Wisconsin. This includes an eclectic mix of Americans who emigrated from other places, plus French, British, and Native Americans. Sauk, Fox, and Ho-Chunk tribes mined, hunted and traded, and different camps at the re- enactment present Native American trade items and interpretations of daily life of Native men and women. The Prairie du Chien Militia, for example, is a group of historians who portray American settlers who found themselves fighting under the British flag against the United States government in the War of 1812. The voyageur canoe camp portrays the French fur traders who ruled the waterways, traveling in teams known as voyageurs in large birchbark canoes. The camp demonstrates the construction of canoes and show the kinds of gear used and trade goods shipped from Montreal to the fur trade posts.

What was life like for an explorer from the eastern colonies, or a blacksmith, or a Potawatomi man, or a colonial settler, or a merchant, seamstress, or middle-class American woman, or colonial medicine and superstition practitioner, woodworker, land surveyor, or candle maker? What were the songs and stories of emigrants from other parts of the Americas or from immigrants such as German immigrant farmers? How did local lead mining relate to the fur trade and the Unites States Department of War? What was the music of the hammered dulcimer, penny whistle, or bagpipe? To answer these questions and more, the Historic Re-enactment presents a hands-on living history experience for the general public, as well as thousands of students whose visit enhances their educational curriculum.

Camp hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, September 9, which emphasizes student tours for schools. Weekend hours include 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Mound View Park is located on the city’s northeast side at the intersection of Madison Street and Broadway Street (County Road B). For more information and classroom teaching materials to complement your visit to the Platteville Historic Re-enactment, see www.mining.jamison.museum/hr. To book a school field trip, contact the Platteville Regional Chamber at (608) 348-8888. Also, find the Platteville Historic Re-enactment on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you!

The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums are located on Main Street in Platteville, Wisconsin, in the heart of the historic Upper Mississippi Valley lead-zinc mining region. Founded in 1965, the museum campus includes scenic greenspace, the underground 1845 Bevans Mine, and a 1930s-era narrow-gauge mine railroad pulled by a 1931 Whitcomb locomotive. The mission of the Museums is to continue in the pursuit of excellence in the areas of regional and mining history. To achieve that purpose, the Museums are commissioned to be custodians of the past; to interpret the rich lead and zinc mining heritage of the region, as well as to preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts that define Southwest Wisconsin. The Museums are open daily from May to October, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cultural programs, special events, and virtual tours are offered year-round.

Follow The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. To reserve your Mine Tour and for more information on current and upcoming programs visit www.mining.jamison.museum, call (608) 348-3301 or email museums@platteville.org.