Found: Front View and Builder, Dickeyville, WI

Father Matthias Wernerus sculpted the Dickeyville Grotto of bits of colored glass, minerals, shells, pottery and other shards embedded in mortar. After driving along Highway 151 heading southwest out of Madison the place looks like a colorful mirage of pop culture intersections with patriotism and religiosity. An adjacent gift shop sells holy water, holy cards, and rosaries. Our first visit to the grotto with college friends in the 1980s  pointied toward the surreal possibilities of making fantastical realities in hidden away places. Some art historians believe Father Wernerus gained inspiration from the much vaster Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend Iowa and that Wernerus' creation in turn inspired similar mystic grotto projects in Wisconsin.

Found: Front View of Grotto at Dickeyville, Wis., © 1929 Rev. Math. Wernerus Genuine Curteich-Chicago "C.T. American Art" "The Grotto of Christ, the Kind and of Mary his Mother, was conceived, esigned, and bult by a priest from thousands of pebbles, stones, shells, and corals from all parts of the world. Its beauty and originality must be seen to be appreciated.

Found: Holy Ghost Cemetery, Dickeyville, Wis. Genuine Curteich-Chicago "C.T. American Art" circa 1929

Found: Park Scene, Dickeyville, Wis. Genuine Curteich-Chicago "C.T. American Art" circa 1929