In the mid-1930's, townspeople shook their heads in disbelief when they saw Robert Neal buy a decrepit stone house on Shake Rag Street. Up and down the street similar vacant stone dwellings were being demolished for their materials which were then used for projects such as retaining walls or house foundations.

Neal, however, intended to preserve one of these Cornish cottages. He enlisted the help of a partner, Edgar Hellum of Stoughton, and together the two men took a century-old stone building from a state of disrepair to what is known today the world over as Pendarvis House. Over the years, Neal and Hellum restored several neighboring Cornish cottages and furnished them with antiques and lead mining tools.

Today, Pendarvis is owned and operated by the State Historical Society. Costumed interpreters offer guided tours through the Pendarvis complex, recalling the days when Mineral Point was a rough and tumble lead mining camp. They explain what brought the Cornish, with their expert knowledge of mining and stone masonry, their Celtic superstitions, and their frugal foodways, to settle in this Shake Rag neighborhood.

The Merry Christmas Mine was one of the few large zinc mines in the United States, Hill where the original discovery of lead ore was made about 1825 and where much of the early mining was done. A recent addition to the mine hill property is the restoration of a 43-acre section of prairie begun in 1988 in a joint venture between the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Conservation Corps. Today the prairie again thrives with indigenous grasses and flowering plants, comprising one of the largest native prairies in southwestern Wisconsin. Marked trails traverse the mine property and the adjoining prairie, and provide lovely vistas recalling the frontier landscape that greeted the first settlers.

For tour information - http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/pendarvis