One of the great things about Mineral Point is that one moment you’re in a Norman Rockwell painting, and the next you’re in a Monty Python movie.   For example, on Sunday afternoon, this took place on the Cheese Trail near the depot:

I asked the guy wearing the unicorn outfit who they were and why they were here.  He explained that they were Morris dancers from around the Midwest who had gathered in the area and were randomly performing their English folk-dancing at various locations.

He said they were in Mineral Point to go to “a pub”. He also explained that instead of bells some of the dancers use beer cans filled with nuts and bolts.

Maybe they were drawn here because Mineral Point is one of the top 10 British towns in America.  Or maybe we made the list because Morris dancers are drawn to our pubs. It’s one of those chicken and egg things.

Just then a separate group of Morris dancers started up in the parking lot of Tony’s Tap.

It should be noted that this was before they went to Tony’s.   Maybe they were going there to make more beer can instruments.  If anyone has footage of them after their stop at Tony’s, let us know.

– Contributed by the Hays

Update

In response to this post we received a message from the Morris dancers: “My name is Trenne Fields, and I’m the squire of the group of dancers in red vests–we are called the Bells of the North. My husband is on the team that wears the green baldrics, in your first video. Thanks for the email link to your blog–it’s fun to see how bits about us show up in various media. FWIW, we do wear actual bells on our shins. The one group that wears the nut-and-bolt-filled beer cans is a men’s Border Morris group called General Hardware. We had a great time–thanks for the sunny day, the ‘pub stops’ and your town’s hospitality!”