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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 - www.wisconsinhistory.org/pendarvis |
Pendarvis State Historic
Site 
