Three time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan visited Platteville in 1909. Here he is shown leaving a Chautauqua at the Methodist Campground, which sat at the current location of Smith Park.
Today Bryan is most famous as the prosecutor in 1926 the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which pitted creationism against evolution. Attorney Clarence Darrow reduced Bryan’s argument to a series of illogical propositions. Bryan died five days later.