Every summer, the circus wagons from the museum in Baraboo travel by train to Milwaukee stopping at various communities along the way for the Great Circus parade but for the rest of the year they are in Ringling Brothers old headquarters at Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Within the price of entrance, there is a full circus performance with other smaller shows, such as Happy the Clown. This show went through all the steps of makeup for the day.

You can also find out what it takes to look after an elephant. The Ringling brothers were initially theatre showmen until they bought an elephant.

The circus was at its peak with the railway. Boats and stage coach routes were too slow to travel from place to place overnight, but you did have to get everything on and off a train expediently. As far as I know, this is the only place in the world where you can still see this skill performed.

There are also models of circuses and their close relation, the wild west show. The most famous of these was Buffalo Bill's, but Tom McCoy (the Real McCoy) and Ranch 101 which made the switch to films as Universal Studios deserve honorable mention. Both Sitting Bull and Gabriel Dumont travelled with Buffalo Bill.

Click here to take the Kenosha streetcar to see more of Wisconsin.

Click here to fly the crane to Wisconsin's Eagle State Park.

Click here to take the circus express to Milwaukee.

Click here to take the New York Ferry to Central Park.

Click here to take our minivan to the contents page.