As cars became affordable to middle-class families, the Dells evolved from a railroad destination requiring multi-day stays into a weekend getaway. New businesses gravitated towards the US 12 highway between the downtown Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton. Along both commercial strips, a new family-oriented tourism economy proliferated, of go-kart tracks, mini-golf courses, wax museums, haunted houses, and gift shops selling rubber tomahawks and beads.
In the 1950s, a burst of roadside attractions along US 12 further shifted the axis of gravity. Storybook Gardens featured whimsical scenes from the likes of Humpty Dumpty to Cinderella, while the Wonder Spot stuffed a playland of optical illusions into an unassuming cabin. Tommy Bartlett, a radio personality from Chicago, established his water ski shows in 1952, which became a signature attraction; set on Lake Delton, they had little to do with the surrounding landscape or history, instead featuring pure spectacle and athletic feats, its performers often wearing patriotic swimsuits or riding NASA space shuttles.
Across online forums and Facebook Groups, older generations of tourists recite the names of these beloved attractions like forgotten dreams. They talk about the Biblical Gardens, which featured manger scenes and multiple crucifixion displays. They talk about the space-age Xanadu, billed as “A house of tomorrow,” with a mish-mash of tech and toys for adults and kids alike. And of course, they recall the Duck boat tours, featuring amphibious vehicles that can trawl both land and water, which have helped preserve the river as a key, if waning, attraction.
Every cohort pines for childhood memories that seemed simpler or more wholesome. Boomers recall the old-timey attractions that, even if bizarre, felt at least unique to the Dells, while their parents yearn for the even humbler past of boat rides and supper clubs. Multiple group members note that now “it’s all about making money hand over fist” and “greed is killing the Dells.” By the early 1980s, geographer John Fraser Hart had already eulogized this moment:
“A boat trip to see the gorge is presumably still a reason for visiting the Dells, but the natural scenic attractions of the area have been increasingly overshadowed by the garish signs and outlandish architecture of manmade marvels. The Dells area is either a showplace of tourist attractions, or the kind of place that gives tourism a bad name, depending on your point of view.”
Where Bennett’s photographs had at least trained viewers to contemplate sublime nature, the new tourist gaze sought novelty, thrills, and variety. Families no longer came to spend a week photographing rock formations—they came for packed two-day weekends with children who needed constant stimulation. In the Dells, that became not just nature, but history, Westerns, the occult, water sports, the future. In more recent decades, the attractions have become ever- stranger: an upside-down White House replica; a giant Trojan Horse with a go-kart running through its belly; on the main downtown stretch, a Museum of Torture Devices.