One of our US colleagues describes the unique Cornish influence that can be found in Southwest Wisconsin...
Tucked away in the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin—and just seven miles from our U.S. headquarters—lies one of America’s most picturesque small towns. Exit the highway and head into Mineral Point (Population: 2,617) and you’ll find streets of quaint stone cottages, and homes bearing unusual names like 'Mousehole' and 'Trelawny'.
On some streets, you could be forgiven for believing yourself magically transported to the scene of a novel by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. With its old-world charm, Mineral Point casts a spell on all who visit—it is a place unlike any other in the United States.
The town owes its unique character to immigrants from Cornwall. Drawn by the promise of a better life in America, Cornish miners were also in demand during Wisconsin’s lead boom in the 1830s. They came to Wisconsin in such large numbers that by 1850, half the population of the so-called 'Lead Region' was Cornish.
Today, visitors come for the galleries, potteries, boutiques and bookstores.
However, the Cornish legacy isn’t just historic and picturesque—it’s
also delicious.
Every restaurant in Mineral Point—from homespun diners to upscale
bistros feature the famous Cornish pasty on its menu. A pastry turnover
filled with meat and vegetables, the pasty was a handy miner’s lunch.
It’s been popular in southwestern Wisconsin ever since the Cornish came,
and local schools and churches bake batches of them for fundraisers.
Followed by saffron cake, it’s the quintessential Cornish cuisine.
Mineral Point’s celebration of all things Cornish culminates in the annual Midwest Cornish Festival every September. A bard from Cornwall often serves as the guest of honour presiding over a weekend of parades and pasties. However, the festival also provides genealogy workshops and lessons in the ancient Cornish language, which is undergoing a revival in Cornwall.
The festival also frequently hosts the biennial 'Gathering of Cornish Cousins'; and you don’t need to go far to find them. Many families in southwestern Wisconsin bear distinctly Cornish names and like other cousins across the United States, they can trace their ancestry back to a mining family that left Cornwall in the 1830s. With Wisconsin as their destination, they came with little more than the clothes on their backs and the traditions they carried in their hearts and memories. As they sailed into the Atlantic, many of them may have taken a final glimpse at the most westerly headland of their native country—which of course, appropriately enough, is called Land’s End.
Photos courtesy of: Pendarvis.
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