With last week’s brief respite from the onslaught of snow, village of Holmen workers were looking for something to do. A couple of them ended up doing some cleaning work in the parks department shop building and came upon something tucked up in a corner of the rafters, something nobody knew the village had.

Some might consider it a treasure.

The workers had found a plastic-wrapped, hand-painted theatrical backdrop depicting a big-city street scene. The backdrop — which measured about 25 feet wide by 10 or 12 feet tall — had a bunch of hand-written names and dates on the back. The earliest date was 1878.

Mike Brogan, Holmen’s parks and recreation director, isn’t sure how the backdrop ended up in the rafters of the parks shop, but he has a theory about what it might have been used for.

Brogan said in Holmen’s early days, the village had a theater that stood about where Village Hall is now. “That’s probably where it came from,” he said.

Apparently, the backdrop was professionally painted at a Minneapolis studio, Brogan said.

Now the trick is figuring out what to do with it. Putting it back up in the rafters doesn’t seem like a good option, nor does throwing it away. Ideally, Brogan said, somebody in town could adopt it.

“I’d think somebody would want it,” he said.

Anyone interested in viewing the backdrop or shedding more light on the backdrop’s history may contact Brogan at Village Hall or call him at 526-2152.

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or (608) 786-6812.