Discover Calumet County
Accommodation in Calumet County
Calumet County combines the landscape along Lake Winnebago with natural areas, historic homes, and museums. Those planning a trip with diverse interests will find inspiration here for days spent on the water, on trails, in nature, and at exhibitions. When choosing your vacation rental or vacation home, you can therefore first decide whether Lake Winnebago, active experiences, cultural history, or regional cuisine should be the focus.
Water, Trails, and Varied Landscapes
Calumet County Park is located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. It offers hiking and biking trails as well as a modern boat facility. The Calumet County Parks Department also operates three marinas on the lake’s eastern shore. Those who want to combine different types of activities during their excursions can therefore include the park as an important stop in their travel plans. The park also offers various activities in winter; on weekends, a snow tubing hill is open when there is sufficient snow cover.
High Cliff State Park is the only state-owned recreation area on Lake Winnebago. Its self-guided Indian Mound Trail leads past effigy mounds built by Indigenous peoples 1,500 years ago. Further nature experiences are available at Brillion Wildlife Area, with its 4,800 acres of floodplain forests, prairies, wetlands, nesting ponds, upland hardwood forests, and agricultural land, as well as the 843-acre Kiel Marsh Wildlife Area at the meeting point of Sheboygan, Calumet, and Manitowoc Counties. There, boats, canoes, skiffs, and kayaks can access the Sheboygan River.
In the southeastern part of the county, Killsnake Wildlife Area covers approximately 7,000 acres. Its landscapes include prairie grasslands, wetlands, forests, swamps, tamarack stands, and bogs. Ledge View Nature Center encompasses forest, dolomite cliffs, open prairie, and an abandoned quarry. Three miles of trails, a 60-foot-high observation tower, and four different caves with opportunities for cave exploration make the area especially diverse. At Ariens Nordic Center, the facilities include a lit 5-kilometer trail network, 3.5 kilometers of paved trails, and a 20-position biathlon shooting range.
History, Museums, and Regional Traditions
Calumet County can also be explored on several cultural levels. High Cliff General Store was built in 1855 and is now a museum. Timm House is a Greek Revival-style home built in 1873 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Tours of the ground and upper floors last about 45 minutes. At the Calumet County Historical Society Museum, you can see historic machinery as well as vintage cars and trucks.
The Heritage Museum at St. Martin Heritage Park documents the history of the former St. Martin Catholic Church and its founders, Catholic education, and stories of local heroes from the American Civil War and World War I. The Pioneer Corner Museum covers, among other topics, early New Holstein, soldiers from New Holstein in the Civil War, the Fenn Button Collection, and memorabilia from the Turnverein and Schutzenverein. The AriensCo Museum conveys more than twelve decades of company and industrial history through historic equipment, artifacts, and memorabilia.
The region’s distinctive character also includes eight special supper clubs. A typical meal there may include a relish tray, bread, soup, salad, an entrée, and an ice cream drink for dessert. This creates a clear choice for trip planning: focus on the lake and nature, on museums and historic sites, or on a combination of both. You can also take the towns of Brillion and Chilton into account as you continue planning your trip.
For the broader travel overview: Wisconsin.
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