Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
haddroppedthe,er,“T”word.Now,it'sbacktotabacky,proudly.Well,thetobacco-spitting
contest has been discontinued, but that's another matter entirely.
Beloit lies along a wide expanse of the Rock River at its confluence at Turtle Creek. It is
a lovely spot, explaining in part the migration of virtually the entire village of Colebrook,
New Hampshire, to this town in 1837.
The city's founders erected a college (respected Beloit College, patterned after eastern
religious seminaries) and a church before much of anything else and landscaped the town
around designs of a New England village with a square. It must have had a positive effect.
Intherough-and-tumble1840s,atravelerwroteofitas“anunusualcommunity,amidshift-
ing pioneer conditions already evincing character and solidity.” Anthropologist Margaret
Mead once called busy and vibrant Beloit “a microcosm of America.”
Angel Museum
The world's largest privately held collection of angel artifacts is on display at Beloit's
An-
gel Museum
(656PleasantSt.,608/362-9099,
www.angelmuseum.com
,
10am-4pmThurs.-
Sat. Apr.-Dec., $7 adults), housed in a restored church right on the Rock River. Angels of
all sorts are on display—more than 12,000 and counting—but the highlight is no doubt the
nearly 600 African American angels donated by Oprah Winfrey.
Beloit College
Founded on the Rock River's east bank as Beloit Seminary,
Beloit College
is the oldest
college in Wisconsin. Its founding philosophy was to preserve eastern mores and culture
in the heathen “West”—though it could pay its two professors only $600 a year “if they
can raise it.” The Middle College building, dating from 1847, is the oldest college build-
ing north of Chicago. Beloit College's Victorian Gothic
Logan Museum of Anthropology
(College and Bushnell Sts., 608/363-2677,
www.beloit.edu/logan
, 11am-4pm Tues.-Sun.,
free) is now one of the most respected museums in the state, with almost a quarter of a
million artifacts from around the globe, including the most extensive Stone Age and paleo-
lithic collections outsideofEurope.Therearethosewhobelieve, incidentally,thatacertain
Beloit College professor was the inspiration for Indiana Jones. Hmm.
