Located on Hwy 136 on the route to Devil’s Lake State Park, you might want to make a quick stop at Baraboo’s Ringling Brother Circus Official historical marker. It reads;
“The Greatest Show on Earth” was born and grew to maturity in Baraboo, just north of here. When the five Ringling brothers gave the first performance of their “Great Double Shows, Circus and Caravan,” May 19, 1884, the main tent was 45 by 90 feet. There was no band wagon, no menagerie. The menagerie was started in 1886, with a hyena advertised as the “Hideous Hyena Striata Gigantium, the Mammouth, Midnight Marauding, Man-Eating Monstrosity”. After traveling in the horse-drawn wagons for six seasons, the circus became the “Ringling Bros. United Monster Railroad Shows.” Until 1918 the circus wintered in Baraboo, where many of the winter-quarters still stand. From humble beginnings, a little ballroom show became the lightest and most spectacular organization in the entertainment world. – Erected in 1956
While the city of Baraboo is still home to Circus World and hosts a Circus Parade each year, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shut down for good in 2017.