[7] By late 1961, officials from Michigan and Wisconsin proposed a joint exhibit at the fair, which would have been themed to the Great Lakes states.

[6][14] Reynolds approved the compromise the next month, and the Wisconsin World's Fair Commission (WFC) was formally established on July 11, 1963.

[17][18] Both houses of the state legislature voted in May 1963 to allocate $35,000 (equivalent to $359,000 in 2024) for a 12-short-ton (11-long-ton; 11 t) block of cheese,[19] and Reynolds approved the funding that June.

[27] At the end of the month, Olson reached out to several businesspeople to provide $1.2 million (equivalent to $12,300,000 in 2024) for the pavilion; the Department of Resource Development had not even contacted anyone for funding.

[33] The WFC had considered canceling the pavilion outright, but an official from the Wisconsin Agriculture Department said the legislature had already allocated $35,000 for cheese.

[39] Despite the missed deadline, WFC officials convinced the New York World's Fair Corporation to approve the plans, saying that, since it used prefabricated materials, the Wisconsin Pavilion could be built much more quickly than other structures.

[41] Olson met with American Motors Corporation and Pabst Brewing Company officials in mid-September 1963 to ask for funds.

[42] Charles Sanders, a manufacturing distributor from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, received the WFC's permission that October to reach out to potential investors.

[75] The pavilion consisted of a central star-shaped rotunda surrounded by a "U"-shaped hall,[56][76] both of which were made with materials supplied by Pruden Steel.

[75][62] Morris Lillethun created a stained glass artwork called Faith as the exhibit of the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The exhibit was a replica of a wooded bluff in Wisconsin, designed by landscape architects Homer Fieldhouse and Alex Jordan Jr.[80] There were displays about sports such as archery and fly casting.

[52][54] The trailer, manufactured by the Milwaukee-based Louis Hoffman Company, was 35 feet (11 m) long and included 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of glass.

[102] In between seasons, the Golden Giant cheese was loaded into the cheesemobile and driven across the United States,[22][89] where it was displayed in several towns and cities.

[102] Democratic Party legislators in the Wisconsin Senate saw the appropriation as excessive,[106] and the state's lieutenant governor Patrick Lucey saw the building as a "shameful bungle".

[107] Nonetheless, in March 1965, the Wisconsin Legislature voted to allocate another $50,000 (equivalent to $514,000 in 2024) to the pavilion; this included $20,000 for an information booth and $10,000 to hire a manager to live at the site.

[69] A resort owner from New York offered $22,000 for the pavilion, but Wilcox declined because he wanted to bring the building back to Wisconsin.

[130] The Golden Giant was displayed at a convention in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, later that year,[89][131] and more than 2,000 people bought pieces of the cheese that December at about $2.50 per pound ($5.5/kg).

[138] Howard Sturtz (the head of Central Wisconsin Broadcasting[123][139]), along with his partner J. Wayne Grap, bought the structure in November 1965 for $41,000 (equivalent to $409,091 in 2024).

[140] The site, opposite the Clark County Fairground in Neillsville,[116][140] was selected because of its proximity to a dance hall that Sturtz ran.

[129] After Wisconsin's Industrial Commission approved the building plans that June,[144] reconstruction of the above-ground structure began that summer.

[145][146] Local media outlets reached out to Sturtz about the building's reconstruction before it was finished,[119] and Governor Knowles visited the pavilion while it was under construction.

[155][117] When the structure was moved from New York City to Neillsville, Steinmann re-landscaped the site, adding a lawn to complement the design of the golf course that abutted the property.

[84][139][175] According to Steinmann, the central rotunda's massing "was prompted by the shape of an Indian tepee", which was intended to attract visitors at the 1964 fair.

[79][84] The history writers Jim Draeger and Daina Penkunias said the design reflected "a naive and stereotypical view of Indian culture" that was influenced significantly by the popular media.

[176] During the World's Fair, the building had plate-glass windows, but these were replaced with insulated glass when the pavilion was moved to Neillsville.

[155] Aluminum, glass, and wrought iron finishes, as well as wood panels and red carpets, were added to the interior when the pavilion was moved to Neillsville.

[181] Conversely, the Waukesha County Freeman wrote that the pavilion had few draws beside the large cheese and that the exhibits glossed over important aspects of Wisconsin's industry, such as machine tools.

[67] A Country Today article from 2013 described the building as resembling a Space Age structure and characterized it as "a favorite in all of Neillsville's tour guides".

[186] In 2014, Jim Draeger and Daina Penkunias wrote for the Wisconsin Magazine of History that the design reflected the improvements in construction materials and methods that had taken place during and after World War II.

[188][119] Images of Chatty Belle were used in advertising campaigns in the late 20th century,[35][189] and footage of the cow was used in the 2000 comedy Chump Change.