Milwaukee Circus Parade

The Pawnee Bill bandwagon in the 1991 edition of the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee

Some of the horses and wagons from the Great Circus Parade, 1991

A bystander regards the circus train near the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.

The Two Hemispheres bandwagon as it appeared at the 1991 Great Circus Parade

The circus train draws onlookers as it passes through town.

The Great Milwaukee Circus Parade was instituted by Circus World Museum in 1963 as a way to revive the pageantry of the American circus.  Though it is funded by the Schlitz Brewing Company, no corporate advertisements are allowed.  It is staged as a historic reenactment, with no mechanized vehicles or rubber tires used.  In addition, the wagons are transported from Baraboo to Milwaukee via a 29-car circus train, which criss-crosses southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois for two days to showcase the restored wagons.  The first parade of 1963 drew over half a million people– the largest crowd of any single event in Wisconsin's history.  Since then, the parade has been mounted 29 times, the most recent in July of 2009.