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It was shortly after noon and the out-of-sync cockerel crowed stridently. Little else disturbed the quiet, rural pioneer life of the 1865 Norwegian settlement.

"Maybe he works the night shift," suggested the boy's father.

Soon, both man and boy were settled behind desks at the one-room Raspberry School. It was built in 1896 by three Scandinavian families in the remote tip of Bayfield County in northern Wisconsin and named for Lake Superior's Raspberry Bay. The schoolhouse, along with more than 60 other buildings from every corner of Wisconsin, was moved to southeast Wisconsin to create Old World Wisconsin, the Midwest's largest outdoor living history museum of immigrant farm and village life.

A dozen or so visitors filtered into the schoolhouse. "Take your seats please," said the stern-faced schoolmarm. "Those standing will be asked questions in a quiz about farm life." People hurriedly squeezed themselves into the tiny desks.

"Of course, those seated may also be asked," said the teacher, finally smiling. "Now, who knows in which season winter corn is planted?" Hint: Not in winter.

Before the Civil War, Wisconsin's rural public schools received little funding and often lacked supplies as under-trained and underpaid teaches taught classes where students ranged in ages from two to 20. Yet, settlers supported public schools, because they introduced their children to American waysÑas evidenced by the American flag and portrait of George Washington displayed above the blackboard at Raspberry School. In winter, pupils often traveled to school by skis or dogsled. Old World Wisconsin occupies 576 acres of rolling, wooded land in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. In early fall, when the weather is cooler, it is a great spot for walking. Trails connecting ethnic settlements can be covered in about 10-40 minutes. Those preferring to ride can take advantage of an all-day transportation pass included with admission. You can hop on and off trams that travel throughout the site.

Wisconsin has one of America's richest ethnic mixes, created as immigrants from every corner of Europe flocked to this frontier to carve homes out of the wilderness. Discover what life was like for those pioneers as you visit Finnish homesteads, German, Danish, Polish and Norwegian farmhouses and a Yankee town hall and stagecoach inn nestled among fields of corn and meadows of sweet clover.

History comes alive as farmers tend now-rare breeds of livestock, such as Devon cattle, Cotswold sheep and Tamworth hogs. Listen to the clatter of farm women spinning cloth and take in the aroma of meals cooking and bread baking on wood-fired stoves. Costumed interpreters create daily vignettes of pioneer life and describe customs carried over from Europe. Discover early Wisconsin's broad ethnic diversity as you meet an Irish laundress, Norwegian wagon maker, Bohemian shoemaker, German blacksmith, English innkeeper and a storekeeper of Welsh descent.

Visit this authentic living-history museum for a popular event scheduled for the second and third weekends in October. "Autumn on the Farms" provides an opportunity for visitors to observe and take part in the annual rituals of rural living as their ancestors prepared long ago for the arrival of winter. You'll get a close-up look at draft horse demonstrations in the German-Polish area as at least 10 teams of horses demonstrate plowing and planting, harnessing and log skidding. In the Koepsell-Schulz pasture, visitors can watch a sawmilling demonstration featuring a vintage steam engine. Also in this area are oxen demonstrations, sausage- and sauerkraut-making and (tentatively) bottling beer or making horseradish.

Catch produce-harvesting and pickling or canning demonstrations in the Finnish-Danish area and visit the Crossroads Village for demonstrations of drying pumpkin, making soap, quilting, blacksmithing and making apple butter and pumpkin pies. In the Norwegian area, you can see demonstrations of spinning and dying wool and making headcheese and catch some lessons in progress at the Raspberry Schoolhouse.

On the Visitor Center Mall, you'll find farmers' and artisans' markets and sales of heirloom vegetables and heirloom apples. The Caldwell Farmers' Club Hall Educational Center is staging rug-braiding demonstrations and offers hoops, sticks, graces and other games for children and adults. Historians note that in October 1871 at the very same time that the Great Chicago Fire was devastating that city, a fire blazing in Wisconsin too k an even greater toll of livesÑestimated at between 1,500 and 2,500Ñyet remains relatively obscure. This fearful conflagration is recalled during "Autumn on the Farms" with a 20-minute play, "The Great Peshtigo Fire: Survivors' Stories." Presented in the Peterson Wagon Shop, it features reminiscences of three menÑa blacksmith, lumberjack and farmer, whose lives were touched by the inferno that scorched northeastern Wisconsin.

If you go...

Information: Old World Wisconsin (262) 594-6300, www.oldworldwisconsin.org; Wisconsin Travel Information (800) 432-8747, www.travelwisconsin.com.

Mileage: Eagle is approximately 100 miles northwest of Chicago.

Upcoming event: "Autumn on the Farms" October 11-12 and 18-19, 10am-5pm.