There is something quietly powerful about revisiting the earliest days of the internet, when websites were simple, experimental, and often built with equal parts curiosity and optimism. For New Glarus, those early websites offer a digital snapshot of a community finding its footing online, whether through local businesses, civic institutions, or organizations that are no longer part of the village today. Long before social media feeds and mobile-first design, these pages served as introductions to who we were and what we valued.

To uncover them, we spent time scouring the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, searching for traces of New Glarus on the early web. That meant testing old domain names, following broken links, and sometimes stumbling across pages that had not been viewed in decades. In some cases, we found full websites frozen in time. In others, only fragments remain, a homepage here, a logo there, offering clues to how these businesses and institutions once presented themselves to the world.

The Wayback Machine is a digital archive that captures and preserves snapshots of websites over time, some dating back to the mid-1990s. Anyone can use it by visiting archive.org and entering a web address to see if copies of that site were saved in the past. It is an invaluable tool for researchers, historians, journalists, and the simply curious, allowing users to explore how the internet, and the communities represented on it, have evolved. For a small town like New Glarus, it provides a rare window into a formative period of local digital history.

What follows are screenshots and brief notes on the New Glarus websites we were able to uncover, including businesses that have since closed or changed hands, along with institutions that were early adopters of an online presence. Each one tells a small story, not just about technology, but about a moment in time when the village began extending itself beyond Main Street and into the wider world of the web.

New Glarus Chamber of Commerce
January 25, 2003
Web Address: http://www.swisstown.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20030125151543/http://www.swisstown.com/

Most people will remember this website and the early graphics used by the New Glarus Chamber of Commerce. Notice the advertisement for the New Glarus Community Festival.

Village of New Glarus
June 16, 2007
Web Address: http://www.newglarusvillage.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20070616171331/http://www.newglarusvillage.com/

The earliest entry for the Village of New Glarus website available at Archive.org is this one, dated June 16, 2007.

The Bank of New Glarus
December 12, 1998
Web Address: http://bankofnewglarus.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/19981212012745/http://bankofnewglarus.com/

There may be New Glarus websites older than this one for the Bank of New Glarus on Archive.org, but we couldn't find one from back in 1998. Clearly the Bank of New Glarus was an early adopter of the Internet.

New Glarus Hotel
December 12, 1998
Web Address: http://newglarushotel.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/19981212015920/http://newglarushotel.com/

This is a screen shot of the New Glarus Hotel website grabbed on the same date as the Bank of New Glarus website above. Notice the entry in Schweizerdeutsch.

Flannery's Wilhelm Tell
July 7, 2009
Web Address: http://www.flannerysnewglarus.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20090707053646/http://www.flannerysnewglarus.com/

Here's one from 2009 for Flannery's Wilhelm Tell. Many of the links are still active, even though the business has been closed for many years. The menu link is like a trip back in time.

Brenda's Blumenladen
February 11, 2003
Web Address: http://www.brendasblumenladen.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20030211161734/http://www.brendasblumenladen.com/

This is the earliest website we could find for Brenda's Blumenladen. It is from just before Valentine's Day 2003.

New Glarus School District
September 28, 2002
Web Address: http://www.ngsd.k12.wi.us/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20020928044324/http://www.ngsd.k12.wi.us/

The website for the New Glarus School District in light yellow is a significant change from the website using school colors today. And while the website colors have changed, notice the logo in the left column that hasn't changed much in over 20 years, though.

New Glarus Brewing Company
July 23, 2001
Web Address: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20010723163332/http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/

This website from 2001 for New Glarus Brewing Company is familiar despite its age. Clearly the company has stayed true to its brand. Although the company and the website have changed much since then, its look, for the most part, has remained similar.

Swiss Historical Village & Museum
July 19, 2008
Web Address: https://swisshistoricalvillage.org/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/19990125104109/http://www.tyme.com/

The Swiss Historical Village & Museum did not embrace the Internet as quickly as other institutions in New Glarus, but it still has changed much since this 2008 screenshot.

New Glarus Bakery
November 27, 1999
Web Address: http://www.newglarusbakery.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/19991127103515/http://www.newglarusbakery.com/

The New Glarus Bakery was an early adopter of the Internet also. This is one of the earliest examples of their website. It is from 1999.

Agri-Graphics
June 22, 2003
Web Address: http://www.agrigraphics.com/default.htm
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20030622104712/http://www.agrigraphics.com/default.htm

This is the website for Agri-Graphics, which was headquartered in New Glarus. It is owned by Kathy DeBruin, who is was one of the leading dairy cattle photographers in American history.

Tyme
December 2, 1998
Web Address: http://www.tyme.com/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/19981202005602/http://www.tyme.com/

It is a shame today's youth will never know what a Tyme machine is. This was the website for Tyme back in 1998.

New Glarus 360
January 17, 2026
Web Address: https://www.newglarus360.com/
Archive: None. Yet.

Visit https://www.newglarus360.com/ at 6:00 AM tomorrow, January 18, 2026, and you will be able to see our website launch on the Internet for the first time.

As we close this look back, readers are encouraged to do a little digging of their own. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web allows anyone to search old web addresses and see if snapshots were preserved, making it a surprisingly powerful tool for uncovering pieces of New Glarus’ digital past. Whether it is a favorite business, a long-gone restaurant, a civic group, or an early personal homepage, there is a chance it still exists somewhere in the archive. If you find something interesting, nostalgic, or unexpected, share the links in the comments below so we can continue building this digital time capsule together.