50305.

Unknown wire-walker in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Information from Paul Wolter, head of the local Sauk County Historical Society, and Fred Dahlinger:

This is definitely the 400 Block of Oak Street looking north. The Bank of Baraboo, (now Baraboo State Bank) on the left was built in 1867 and enlarged after the December fire of 1871. The picture can be dated to that time period making this among the earliest known pictures of Baraboo. In the background on the right you can see the fourth story cupola of the Western Hotel. I did some searching on Newspapers.com and I can’t find any reference to an exhibition like this on Oak Street during those years. It surely must have been reported in the paper. At first I thought it was a tightrope walker but it is more like a trapeze act [agreed F. D.]. I searched for the word “aerialist” and came up with an ad for the Dan Costello Circus that came to Baraboo in September of 1870. It might have been an exhibition act to promote the circus.  It is a really neat image! The Bank of Baraboo is still operating today.  They were the bank for the Ringlings.  Dan Castello was a performer out of Racine, Wisconsin, where he had a winter quarters.  His name was on the first circus to go by railroad across the recently completed transcontinental railroad in 1869.  He partnered with William C. Coup of Delevan, WI in the 1870 Coup & Castello circus on Lake Michigan, moving by ship.  That winter they proposed a partnership with P. T. Barnum for 1871 and he jumped at the proposition, going all in.  That inaugurated the “Greatest Show on Earth” that has endured until recent times.