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Prairie Moon is one of Evanston’s longest running restaurants, opened in 2002, and in fact, holds one of Evanston’s first liquor licenses. Evanston is home of Frances Willard, the national president of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and was a completely dry city until 1972. It didn’t legalize liquor stores until 1984 and its first distillery and brewery opened in 2011 and 2012.

Prairie

Prairie Moon is a 1938 American Western film directed by Ralph Staub and starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Shirley Deane. Written by Betty Burbridge and Stanley Roberts, the film is about a singing cowboy who takes care of three tough boys sent west from Chicago after their father dies and leaves them a cattle ranch. In 1952, after 40 years of working the land, Rusch retired. “To kill old-age boredom,” he first rented, then purchased the Prairie Moon Dance Pavilion and transformed it into a museum.Among them were a tree grown around a scythe, a washing machine powered by a goat on a treadmill, and taxidermy specialties such as a fox and rabbit trapped in a hollow log.

Others will recall with fondness his lively fiddling at barn dances and weddings. But no one who’s seen it will forget Herman Rusch’s magnificent Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden & Museum. nd color not only made such a feat possible, but also brought him wide acclaim.In late 1994, Kohler Foundation donated the Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden & Museum, an important part of Wisconsin’s cultural heritage, to the Town of Milton to be maintained as a public art site. A joyful opening celebration in 1995 brought the community and the Rusch family together with preservationists, artists, and art historians from throughout the country, an affirmation of the national significance of the art of Herman Rusch. (Source: www.kohlerfoundation.org)

MOON

In late 1994, Kohler Foundation donated the Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden & Museum, an important part of Wisconsin’s cultural heritage, to the Town of Milton to be maintained as a public art site. A joyful opening celebration in 1995 brought the community and the Rusch family together with preservationists, artists, and art historians from throughout the country, an affirmation of the national significance of the art of Herman Rusch.

Some will remember Rusch for his curious view of the natural world made manifest in his roadside museum. Others will recall with fondness his lively fiddling at barn dances and weddings. But no one who’s seen it will forget Herman Rusch’s magnificent Prairie Moon Sculpture Garden & Museum. His powerful vision, tireless labor, and organic sense of rhythm, form, and color not only made such a feat possible, but also brought him wide acclaim. (Source: www.kohlerfoundation.org)