Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, so we are blessed to have a beautiful capitol building in our city. It features the only capitol dome in the United States made entirely of granite, and it’s the only state capitol built on an isthmus. The inside is ornate with paintings and murals, hand-carved furniture and 43 varieties of stone including New York and Italian marble.
Starting in late November the rotunda is adorned by a large Christmas tree. This year’s tree came from Rhinelander, Wisconsin—a 40-foot balsam fir. It’s decorated by school children from around the state. As we passed a group taking the official tour on Saturday, I heard the tour guide say that the tree drinks 29 gallons of water a day!
A special treat this year was a new view of the tree. They built a plexiglass viewing area from the trumpeter’s ring 80 feet above the rotunda. That area hasn’t been open to the public in almost 80 years.
Here’s the view:
