It depicts housing and the daily life of settlers in 19th-century Wisconsin, with separate areas representing the traditions of different ethnic groups who settled in the state.

The largest outdoor museum of rural life in the United States, it encompasses approximately 480 acres[1] (2.4 km2) of rolling wooded hills.

It contains more than 60 historic structures, ranging from ethnic farmsteads with furnished houses and rural outbuildings to an 1880s crossroads village with traditional small town institutions.

Old World Wisconsin exists largely due to the efforts of German immigrant Hans Kuether and architect Richard W. E.

Following this, two graduate students were selected to refine and expand the preliminary programs through research, on-site investigations and design studies and create a master plan for development.

In 1968, the master plan was summarized in a 122-page report which also included an economic feasibility study by a graduate student in the School of Business.

Development of the park was intended to start in 1972 and the Historical Society had already moved 11 dismantled structures to the site but work was delayed until 1973 pending completion of an environmental impact study.

The court lifted the order stating that work had started at the site before the law took effect on August 1 and was therefore exempt from the new rule.

[15] In December 1975 Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey announced that a $4 million fund raising campaign would be chaired by Herbert Kohler Jr. and his wife Linda.