Wisconsin

About Wisconsin

History of Wisconsin

In 1634, Frenchman Jean Nicolet became Wisconsin’s first European explorer, landing at Red Banks, near modern day Green Bay in search of a passage to the Orient. The French controlled the area until 1763, when it was ceded to the British.

After the American Revolutionary War, Wisconsin was a part of the U.S. Northwest Territory. It was then governed as part of Indiana Territory, Illinois Territory, and Michigan Territory. Wisconsin Territory was organized on July 3, 1836 and became the 30th state on May 29, 1848.

Wisconsin’s political history encompasses, on the one hand, Fighting Bob La Follette and the Progressive movement; and on the other, Joe McCarthy, the controversial anti-Communist censured by the Senate during the 1950s. The first Socialist mayor of a large city in the United States was Emil Seidel, elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1910; another Socialist, Daniel Hoan, was mayor of Milwaukee from 1916 to 1940.

The state mineral is Galena, otherwise known as lead sulfide, which reflects Wisconsin’s early mining history. Many town names such as Mineral Point recall a period in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s when Wisconsin was an important mining state. When Indian treaties opened up southwest Wisconsin to settlement, thousands of miners—many of them immigrants from Cornwall, England—flocked to southern Wisconsin in what could almost be termed a “lead rush.” At one point Wisconsin produced more than half of the nation’s lead. During the boom it appeared that southwest Wisconsin might become the population center of the state, and Belmont was briefly the state capital. By the 1840s the easily-accessible deposits were worked out, and experienced miners were drawn out of Wisconsin by the California Gold Rush. This period of mining before and during the early years of statehood directly led to the development of state’s nickname, the “Badger State.” Many miners and their families lived in the mines in which they worked until adequate above-ground shelters were built and were thus compared to Badgers..

Wisconsin

Abbotsford     Algoma     Antigo     Appleton     Ashland     Baldwin     Baraboo     Beaver Dam     Belgium     Beloit     Berlin     Black River Falls     Boscobel     Brookfield     Brown Deer     Burlington     Cameron     Chetek     Chippewa Falls     Columbus     Cumberland     De Forest     De Pere     Delafield     Delavan     Dodgeville     Eagle River     East Troy     Eau Claire     Edgerton     Egg Harbor     Ellison Bay     Elm Grove     Fond du Lac     Fontana     Fort Atkinson     Germantown     Glendale     Green Bay     Green Lake     Hayward     Hudson     Hurley     Jackson     Janesville     Jefferson     Johnson Creek     Kaukauna     Kenosha     Kewaunee     Kimberly     Kohler     La Crosse     Ladysmith     Lake Delton     Lake Geneva     Lancaster     Lomira     Madison     Manitowoc     Marinette     Marshfield     Mauston     Medford     Menomonee Falls     Menomonie     Mequon     Merrill     Middleton     Milwaukee     Mineral Point     Minocqua     Monona     Monroe     Mosinee     Mukwonago     Neenah     New Berlin     New Lisbon     New Richmond     Oak Creek     Oconomowoc     Oconto     Onalaska     Oshkosh     Osseo     Pewaukee     Phillips     Platteville     Pleasant Prairie     Plover     Plymouth     Port Washington     Portage     Prairie du Chien     Racine     Reedsburg     Rhinelander     Rice Lake     Richland Center     Ripon     River Falls     Saukville     Schofield     Shawano     Sheboygan     Siren     Sparta     Spooner     St. Croix Falls     Stanley     Stevens Point     Stoughton     Sturgeon Bay     Sturtevant     Sun Prairie     Superior     Thorp     Tomah     Tomahawk     Turtle Lake     Verona     Washburn     Watertown     Waukesha     Waunakee     Waupaca     Waupun     Wausau     Wautoma     Wauwatosa     West Allis     West Bend     West Salem     Whitehall     Whitewater     Windsor     Wisconsin Dells     Wisconsin Rapids