Wisconsin's Mustard Museum on the move

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. -- For the final time, people will gather here Saturday on two closed-off blocks of Main Street to celebrate National Mustard Day. There will be free hotdogs with mustard — there's a $10 surcharge for those who dare to request ketchup — mustard painting and music by the Poupon U Accordion Band.

Mustard Day and its host, the Mustard Museum, are relocating 18 miles away to Middleton this fall. The move will leave a gap on Main Street and reroute the tour buses that bring visitors to the Mustard Museum and its gift shop. The move is stirring debate about how small towns can effectively compete for tourist dollars.

The loss of the museum is part of a shift in Mount Horeb's character, says Bruce Fortney, 57, an artist who exhibits his work at a gallery above Isaac's Antiques.

Once there were five antique shops here; now there are two. Some storefronts are vacant, others now house insurance or real-estate offices. "It's kind of sad. It was a shopping town, and it's changing," Fortney says.

This town of 6,700 is "disappointed to see such a large tourist attraction leave," says village administrator Larry Bierke. He says he's trying to lure a new "destination location."

Barry Levenson, owner of the Mustard Museum, says the move will give him more space to display 5,000 mustards and 1,500 antique mustard pots, bottles and tins. He'll be closer to Madison, the state capital, and is getting up to $50,000 for relocation costs from Middleton.

'People will still come'

The museum draws up to 30,000 visitors a year, but the dwindling number of antique stores, the recession and last summer's spike in gas prices reduced tourist traffic and squeezed the museum, which is free for most visitors and is operated as a small business.

"People will still come," he says. "Mount Horeb has a resiliency that's going to prove itself."

Levenson, 60, grew up in Worcester, Mass., and attended law school at the University of Wisconsin and has been collecting mustard since 1986.