When the French arrived in present-day Wisconsin 1634, the primary tribes in the area were the Menominee, Winnebago, Iowa, and Dakota. Jesuit missionaries tried to Christianize the tribes, with little success, while French trappers succeeded in profiting off the region's beaver until the animals were almost made extinct. After the French were defeated in the French and Indian War in 1763, they continued to trade fur in the region, though control of the territory passed to the English. The United States took over Wisconsin in 1783 after the American Revolution, but did not oust the British until the War of 1812. Two forts built in 1816 assured protection for settlers, who then began immigrating in large numbers.
When lead deposits were found in the 1820's, the Native Americans were forced off their lands in the territory. The lead miners who braved the region's winters, survived by digging caves into the hillsides for shelter and were subsequently given the name "badgers." Successive treaties with the Native Americans quickly pushed the Indians to the edges of the state. The last Native American stand against white encroachment in Wisconsin and east of the Mississippi River was the Black Hawk War of 1832. Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, opposed the ceding of all the Sauk's lands in Illinois, and had sided with the British during the War of 1812. Black Hawk attempted to create an Anti-American alliance with several tribes, but his fellow Indians not only refused to support him, but aided the Americans in his pursuit. The "war" consisted of an almost total massacre of Black Hawk's few remaining followers as they attempted to flee across the Mississippi River out of Wisconsin. Black Hawk escaped but soon surrendered and was imprisoned and later settled in a Sauk reservation. Between 1812 and 1836, the territory which is now Wisconsin was at various times considered part of the Northwest, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan Territories.
Because steamboats and sailing vessels could not reach the state's rich interior agricultural areas, canals and plank roads were used until the railroads were finally completed in the 1850's. From 1840 to the Civil War, Wisconsin primarily grew wheat and became a major flour milling center The cheap transportation afforded by the Great Lakes helped Wisconsin become an important center of interstate commerce. The wheat would later aid the state's famous breweries. When the Civil War broke out Wisconsin strongly supported the Union, and supplied a great deal of both men and agricultural products to the cause. During the decades which followed the war Wisconsin developed a reputation for progressive politics, and many of the nation's first legislation regarding pensions, welfare, and education were passed in the state. It was also during this period that the state became the nation's leader in the production of dairy products.
In World War I, many Wisconsin soldiers served in the famous 32d Division. During the 1920's, progressive legislation returned to Wisconsin with the creation of the markets department which pushed against bovine tuberculosis. Wisconsin legislation further improved labor's plight in the 1930's with farm debt relief and the "Little Wagner Act," the nation's first unemployment compensation law.
One could say that a major portion of the Cold War was fought in Wisconsin, considering that that war's fiercest combatant, Joseph McCarthy, was the state's representative in the United States Senate. McCarthy's "Red Scare" started a national fervor as American's became obsessed with the concept of Communist infiltration. Since that time, the state has stayed out of America's political spotlight for the most part, and today its biggest fear is of subversives who would conspire to undermine the dairy industry. By the early 1960's, dairy production had become so important to the state's economy that the sale of margarine was legally prohibited in the state. Today Wisconsin processes over half of the nation's cheese, over twenty percent of its butter, and almost all of its dried, evaporated, and condensed milks. There are more cows in Wisconsin than any other state in the nation. Dairy products are not the state's only business however. The state is also home to major Great Lakes shipping operations and a substantial paper making industry. The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin is second only to Detroit in American automobile production and the state's largest city, Milwaukee, is the beer brewing capital of the world.
Visiting the State
National Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum
Neenah and Baraboo burial mound sites
Glacial hills from the Ice Age left drumlins and moraines (masses of boulders, rocks, and gravel) throughout the state.
Frank Lloyd Wright's building for the Johnson Wax Company, in Racine, and Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin, in Spring Green.
Near Dodge is the famed "House on a Rock."
With almost 8,500 lakes from ice age glacial melting, Wisconsin has even more swamps and harbors, not to mention the lovely Lake Michigan.
Lizard Mound State Park features 31 Indian effigy mounds.
Madison: Located between Lake Mendota in the North and Lake Monona in the South; home to university campuses, charming 19th-century churches, and a Unitarian church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Museum of Medical Progress, in Prairie du Chien.
Rhinelander Logging Museum with replica of old-time logging camps.
1854 schoolhouse, at Ripon, where the first meeting was held to create the Republican party.
Stonefield Farm and Craft Museum, in Baraboo.
Annual winter events include Snowmobile Derbies.
Wisconsin River Dells Region: River cut through sandstone leaving rocks with unusual shapes; names like Grand Piano, Devil's Elbow, Fat Man's Misery, and Rib Mountain.
Famous Cheeseheads
Edna Ferber (1887-1968) Novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Her works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel So Big and Show Boat which was made into a musical. She began her career as a reporter in Wisconsin.
Houdini (b. Erich Weiss, 1874-1926) Famous magician and escape artist. Born in Hungary, he emigrated to Wisconsin as a child.
Robert Marion La Follette, Sr.(1855-1925) U.S. senator; Progressive Republican governor and presidential candidate in 1924.
Philip Fox La Follette (1897-1965) Son of Robert La Follette, Sr.; governor of Wisconsin in the 1930s, organizer of the Progressive Party in Wisconsin with
his brother Robert, Jr.
Robert Marion La Follette, Jr. (1895-1953) Elected to U.S. Senate to fill vacancy left after his father, death.
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (1908-57) U.S. Senator from Wisconsin He is most famous for the dreaded red scares and blacklisting of suspected communists in
the 1950's.
William H. Rehnquist (b. 1924) Conservative justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who was nominated Chief Justice by President Reagan in 1986 after Warren E.
Burger retired Born Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Christopher L. Sholes (1819-90) Journalist and inventor of the typewriter.
Frederick J. Turner (1861-1932) Historian. He Won a Pulitzer Prize in history in 1933.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) Foremost American architect. Born Richland Center, Wisconsin.
Fascinating Fact
The first kindergarten in the United States was created in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856, by Mrs. Carl Schulz.
Wisconsin adopted a state flag in 1913 and modified it in 1981. The blue flag features the Wisconsin coat of arms which shows various symbols of agriculture, shipping, mining, and industry. The badger situated above the shield refers to the state nickname, and the soldiers represent Wisconsin's efforts for the North during the Civil War.
