N8745 CTY HWY O

Summary

SUMMARY FOR WEB Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Haus and Park
N8745 County Highway O, Town of New Glarus, Green County
Date of Construction: 1907

The Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Haus and Park is associated with the Swiss tradition of schuetzenfests (sharpshooting contests) and has been the site of the annual Volksfest, which celebrates Swiss culture and music, since 1929. The Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Verein (also known as the Wilhelm Tell Rifle Club) incorporated in 1870. In Switzerland, national defense was regarded as the responsibility of citizens, and schuetzen vereins (“sharpshooters clubs”) were organized to practice marksmanship in preparation for protecting the community. Schuetzen verein reached the height of their popularity in the U.S. after the Civil War, in communities with Swiss or German immigrants across the nation.

There were many in Wisconsin, with its concentration of German and Swiss settlers. Green County had three: in Monroe, Monticello, and New Glarus. As was typical of Swiss schuetzen verein, the Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Verein was a social organization as well as one that prepared for defense. The Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Verein purchased the current site of Schuetzen Park in 1879. It was selected for the grove of oak trees that sheltered the shooting range from prevailing westerly winds.

The men gathered at least monthly on Sunday afternoons from late spring to early fall to practice. These were a family events, with food, drink, music, and Swiss bowling (played outdoors). The club generally held four schuetzenfests a year and sent representatives to state and national sharpshooting events. In 1907, the year the Schuetzen Haus was built, the four-man New Glarus team was the toast of the schuetzen, winning many prizes at the five-day national competition held in Charleston that year, to the astonishment of their Eastern competitors. Among all contestants, J.M. Schmid earned the top score, and was crowned national Schuetzenkoenig (King of the Marksmen). His prize was a gold medal, reputedly a gift of Kaiser Wilhelm. To their delight, the men were feted not only by crowds that met them at the New Glarus train station on their return, but also in Switzerland’s annual National Schuetzenfest Official Guidebook. Tell Schuetzen Haus and Park hosted the biennial statewide sharpshooting competition in 1908, the biennial nine-state regional sharpshooting contest in 1917, and regular sharpshooting matches every year through at least 1933, and intermittently thereafter until circa 1960. The Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Haus is one of only two known surviving schuetzen hauses in the state. The other is in Chilton, on the Calumet County Fairgrounds.

The Wilhelm Tell Schuetzen Haus and Park has also been the site of celebrations of Swiss ethnic pride beginning with the anniversary festivals commemorating the founding of New Glarus (1845) and the establishment of the Swiss Federation (1291, also known as Swiss independence). These were held every ten years from 1895 through 1935. Since 1929, the Schuetzen Haus and Park has hosted the annual Volksfest, the first Sunday in August, celebrating Swiss independence and heritage with music, singing, yodeling, dancing, flag-tossing, and other displays of Swiss traditional culture.

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