Painted Forest

The Painted Forest is a simple white frame building set on a hillside in the small community of Valton, Wisconsin, in the Upper Baraboo River country. Its treasure lies inside, where the walls and ceiling are covered with visionary and intriguing murals painted in the late 1890's by an itinerant self-taught German painter, Ernest Hupeden. 

Around 1890, men of the Valton area community organized a "camp" or local unit of the Modern Woodmen of America (MWA). The MWA was not only a life insurance company that would assist widows and orphans, but also a fraternal organization intended by its founder to "provide wholesome social activities and character building."

The Painted Forest is owned by Edgewood College, Madison, WI. To learn more about this unique attraction, click here