The Painted Forest, Wisconsin

The Painted Forest is former camp meeting building for the Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal organization supporting workers in the timber trade, which has been completely painted, on the inside, with elaborate forest scenes, by an obscure but inspired artist, Ernest Hupeden. Commissioned by the Woodmen, he spent two years on the work, completing it in 1899. In 1980, the building was purchased by the Kohler Foundation, in order to restore and preserve the unusual panoramic mural. It is now owned by Edgewood College, in Madison, but is still visitable by the public.