Wisconsin is located in the northern interior of the United States in the upper Midwest. It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the south by Illinois, on the west by Iowa and Minnesota, and on the east by Lake Michigan. Wisconsin extends about 475 km (295 mi) east to west at its widest point, and about 515 km (320 mi) north to south. The state took its name from its principal river, the Wisconsin, whose name had been derived from an Ojibwa Indian word thought to mean "gathering of the waters." Wisconsin's nickname, the Badger State, comes not from the wild animal of that name found in small numbers in the upper Midwest, but from the nickname given to lead miners of the 1830s who burrowed into hillsides looking for shallow deposits of ore. Wisconsin ranks 16th (1990) in population among the 50 states and ranks 13th in the value of its manufacturing. As urbanized as the state has become, Wisconsin remains the nation's leading dairy state--accounting for almost 18% (1986) of U.S. milk and about half of U.S. cheese production--and consistently leads in the production of green peas, string beans, and sweet corn. LAND AND RESOURCES Wisconsin may be divided into five physiographic regions: the Lake Superior lowland; the northern highland; the central sandy plain; the western upland, extending across the southwestern portion of Wisconsin; and the eastern ridges and lowlands. The Lake Superior lowland, once a glacial lake bed, is now a level to gently rolling red clay plain along Lake Superior in the northwestern corner of the state. Wisconsin's largest physical region, the northern highland, extends south from the Lake Superior lowland and covers the northern third of the state. It consists essentially of a gently rolling glaciated plain of low local relief, although Rib Mountain towers about 250 m (800 ft) above the city of Wausau in Marathon County, and the state's highest point, Timm's Hill, at 595 m (1,952 ft), is located in southeastern Price County. In the crescent-shaped central sandy plain, edging along the southern margin of the northern highland and generally underlain by sand and sandstone formations, local relief varies from the flattish beds of ancient glacial lakes to rolling glacial moraines and, in a few western sections, scattered mesas and buttes. The western upland, in the southwest, contains some of Wisconsin's roughest landscape. Glaciation covered little of the region, so mature river systems have had millions of years to cut an intricate, hilly landscape. By contrast, the eastern ridges and lowlands region has low relief because of recent glaciation, but occasional moraines of up to 100 m (300 ft) mark places where glacial lobes stopped prior to withdrawal. Drainage The \TMississippi River\t flows along most of Wisconsin's western border with Minnesota and Iowa. About 30% of Wisconsin lies within the \TGreat Lakes\t drainage basin and about 70% is within the basin of the Mississippi River. The highland area of northern Wisconsin is the source for most of the state's 7 major drainage systems. The principal ones are the Wisconsin River, which begins on the Michigan-Wisconsin border and empties into the Mississippi just below Prairie du Chien; the Chippewa-Flambeau, which drains the northwest interior and also empties into the Mississippi; and the Wolf-Fox river system, which empties into \TGreen Bay\t and thence into Lake \TMichigan\t. About 8,500 interior lakes, most of them in the north and east, and of glacial origin, cover more than 4,000 sq km (1,500 sq mi). Lake \TWinnebago\t, Wisconsin's largest lake, has an area of 557 sq km (215 sq mi); Green Lake, the state's deepest lake, reaches 72 m (236 ft). Climate Mild to warm summers and cold, snowy winters characterize Wisconsin's humid, continental climate. Average July temperatures range from 18 deg C (65 deg F) in the north to 24 deg C (75 deg F) in the south; January temperatures vary between minus 14 deg C (7 deg F) and minus 4 deg C (24 deg F). Lakes Michigan and Superior exert a moderating influence during both the summer and winter. Precipitation averages 760 mm (30 in) statewide, with the hilly west and domed elevations of the far north receiving as much as 915 mm (36 in). Vegetation and Animal Life In the middle of the 19th century, Wisconsin had two rather distinct vegetation zones. The northern half of the state was covered by a mixed forest of mature pines and broadleaf deciduous hardwoods, and the southern half had broadleaf deciduous forests along with a considerable acreage of prairie grasslands. By the early 1920s most of the earlier vegetation had been removed by lumbering or deliberate burning to clear land for farming. Today, however, developing young forests--mostly in the north and consisting of aspen, oak, maple, and birch--cover 42% of the state. The buffalo and the passenger pigeon did not survive the 19th-century pioneers; even the marten, fisher, and timber wolf disappeared for a time. Conservation agencies have had some success reintroducing the wild turkey, and prairie chickens would be gone had it not been for the formation of a society dedicated to their survival. The coyote, native to the open plains to the west of Wisconsin, has recently moved into the state. As a result of careful management, white-tailed deer are more numerous today than ever. Skunk, fox (red and gray), and various species of rabbit seem to go through population cycles independent of human influences. Resources and Environment Despite Wisconsin's many lakes, ponds, and rivers and seemingly adequate precipitation, drought--especially in summer--is a serious problem. In some areas even enough water for human consumption may be lacking for weeks or months. Most of the state's important commercial minerals are nonmetallic--sand, gravel, and building stone. Iron and zinc-lead ores are mined, but the vast quantities of copper and zinc discovered recently in the Precambrian rocks of the north, especially in Forest County, remain unexploited. Wisconsin's commercial forests--97% of the total forest--cover about 58,800 sq km (22,700 sq mi), but little is harvested. Wisconsin's early settlers regarded the state's bountiful waters as a sort of natural waste-disposal system, which led to severe pollution problems. State regulation of natural resources began in 1867 when a forest commission was established. The state department of natural resources, created in 1967, now protects and manages all resources. PEOPLE Of the five eastern north central states--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin--Wisconsin is the least populous as well as the least densely populated. Yet Wisconsin has been growing faster than any of the other four states. Generally, southeastern Wisconsin has the highest density, and the wooded north has the lowest. The major cities are \TMilwaukee\t, \TMadison\t (the capital), \TRacine\t, \TGreen Bay\t, \TKenosha\t, \TAppleton\t, \TSheboygan\t, \TOshkosh\t, and \TLa Crosse\t--all, except for La Crosse, are in the southeastern quadrant of the state. The migration trend within Wisconsin has generally been from rural to urban areas and from older city centers to newer suburban areas. By 1980 some reversal of this trend has occurred in the state, and the rural population had increased. Between 1980 and 1990, however, there again was in increase in population in Wisconsin's major cities, although Milwaukee's city proper and Racine continued to lose population. Black Americans were in Wisconsin during the early part of the 19th century, but they were a small minority until after World World War I. Today, blacks constitute the largest minority in the state and make up about 30% of the population of the city of Milwaukee. Other minority groups in the state are the Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians. Of the white majority, of European origin, more than 20 groups are represented, the largest of which are those of German, Scandinavian, Slavic, English, and Irish descent. The largest religious groups in Wisconsin are Roman Catholics and Lutherans. Other principal denominations include Methodists, the United Church of Christ, Baptists, and Presbyterians. Education Wisconsin's 1848 constitution provided for free public education, and in 1911 the first system of vocational, technical, and adult education in the nation was enacted by the Wisconsin legislature. The University of Wisconsin system (see \TWisconsin, University of\t) includes all public institutions of higher education in the state. Wisconsin's private colleges and universities include \TBeloit College\t, \TLawrence\t \Tuniversity\t, and \TMarquette University\t. Culture Leading museums include the Milwaukee Public Museum and the State Historical Museum at Madison. The Milwaukee Art Museum possesses an outstanding collection of 20th-century art, and the Milwaukee Symphony has achieved national recognition. The Milwaukee Ballet and Florentine Opera, as well as the Symphony, all perform from the city's Performing Arts Center, and the Repertory Theater is nearby. Specialized museums include the Circus World Museum in Baraboo and the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. Historical Sites The Wisconsin State Historical Society maintains about 200 historical markers throughout the state. Built in 1926, Little Norway, near Mount Horeb, re-creates an early-19th-century Norwegian village. The Villa Louis (built 1843) at Prairie du Chien was the home of Hercules L. Dousman, a fur trader. The Roi-Porlier-Tank Cottage (erected 1776) in Green Bay is the oldest standing building in the state. Communications Leading newspapers in the state are the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Green Bay Press Gazette, and the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. The state is also served by numerous commercial and educational radio and television stations and by various television cable systems. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Manufacturing is Wisconsin's single most important economic activity, accounting for about 30% of the gross state product. In the early 1980s, however, an economic slump caused a permanent loss of some manufacturing jobs in the state. Economic growth areas since that time have been in various service industries. Farming, particularly dairying, traditionally has been important to the state's economy and remains significant. Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing About 80% of the agricultural receipts comes from livestock (cattle, hogs) and livestock products, especially milk and cheese. Leading field crops include corn, hay, oats, barley, soybeans, tobacco, and wheat. Wisconsin also is a large producer of vegetables and fruits, including potatoes, grown in the central part of the state, and sweet corn, beets, green peas, snap beans, cabbage, carrots, lima beans, cranberries, cherries, apples, and cucumbers. In most years only small numbers of people are employed in logging camps or by logging contractors. Far more people, however, work in forest-based manufacturing industries, and the value of wood products made in Wisconsin far exceeds that of the state's lumber production. Because of pollution, overfishing, and the depredations of the sea lamprey, the state's commercial fishing industry, located primarily along lakes Michigan and Superior, has been in decline since 1945. Sportfishing, however, thrives in the state; major game fish caught are bass, muskellunge, perch, sturgeon, and trout. Mining Mineral production is of minor significance to Wisconsin's economy. The most important minerals are sand and gravel, stone, and iron ore. Sand and gravel are found in nearly all of Wisconsin's counties. Iron ore is found in Jackson, Ashland, and Iron counties. Manufacturing and Energy Wisconsin is an important industrial state. Among its leading products are nonelectrical machinery, food products, paper products, fabricated metal products, and transportation equipment. The main area of industrial activity is in the southeastern part of the state, particularly the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Major paper-production areas are in the Fox River and Wisconsin River valleys. Wisconsin is also a leading beer-producing state. Milwaukee has long been a major brewery center, and there is also beer production in La Crosse. Most of Wisconsin's coal, oil, and natural gas comes from sources outside the state. The state's energy needs are supplied by steam-generating plants, and nuclear power. The state's first hydroelectric plant was built in Appleton on the Fox River in 1882, but today most of the state's power comes from nonhydroelectric sources. Tourism Wisconsin's travel and recreation industry is one of the state's major sources of income. The famous Wisconsin Dells draws many visitors to that scenic region of the state, and deer, rabbit, and squirrel attract numerous hunters each fall. The state's many lakes are used for boating, camping, fishing, and waterskiing. Chequamegon and Nicolet national forests cover extensive areas in northern Wisconsin. The Apostle Islands in Lake Michigan and the adjacent coastline are designated a national lakeshore; two separate areas of the Saint Croix River are national scenic river sites shared with Minnesota. Hundreds of town, village, city, and county parks complement Wisconsin's state recreation areas. Transportation Wisconsin's major interstate highways are I-90 and I-94, which cross the state in a northwest-southeasterly direction. Milwaukee's Mitchell Field is the busiest of the state's airports. Airlines also serve Green Bay, Madison, and other Wisconsin cities. Wisconsin's first cross-state railroad, from Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien, was completed in 1857. Rail mileage reached a peak during the early 20th century and has since declined. Nevertheless, most of Wisconsin's cities and villages still receive railway freight service. Amtrak provides passenger service to some Wisconsin cities. Wisconsin ports, including Milwaukee, Green bay, and Superior, handle significant water-traffic tonnage on the Great Lakes. Coal, limestone, petroleum, and clay come in; outgoing cargoes include iron ore, wheat, corn, processed foods, and manufactured items. The Mississippi River remains an important route for barges navigating from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Wisconsin has barge ports at Alma, La Crosse, Prairie du Chien, and Cassville. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS Wisconsin has retained the same constitution ever since becoming a state in 1848, although it has been amended. The governor serves a 4-year term and can be reelected indefinitely. The legislature comprises a senate, whose 33 members hold office for 4 years, and an assembly, whose 99 members serve 2-year terms. Wisconsin's judicial system ascends to a supreme court composed of 7 justices elected to 10-year terms. The Republican party dominated Wisconsin politics during the second half of the 19th century. During the first two decades of the 20th century, however, Robert M. \TLa Follette\t and his Progressive movement held center stage. Since that time, Republicans and Democrats have been in the ascendancy by turns. \Thistory\t Skilled big-game hunters arrived in Wisconsin 13,000 to 14,000 years ago--when sheets of glacial ice had just retreated--following mastodon, giant beavers, deer, caribou, and elk. About 6,000 years ago, the so-called Old Copper Indians lived in pole-frame structures covered with hides or bark. They used copper tools and buried their dead in ochre-lined graves. Early Woodland cultures (see \TMound Builders\t) occupied portions of the state by about 600 BC, living by hunting, fishing, and collecting seeds. The Middle Woodland or Hopewell people arrived from the south about 100 BC with a limited form of agriculture, including cultivation of maize, pumpkin, and squash. They traded for goods made as far away as the Carolinas and the Gulf of Mexico. Overlapping in time with the Hopewell in southern Wisconsin, the Effigy Mound Builders left behind spectacular burial mounds, such as one near Madison that is in the form of a huge bird 2 m (6 ft) high with a wingspread of 190 m (624 ft). By AD 1000, when both the Hopewell and the Effigy Mound Builder traditions were in decline, ancestors of the \TWinnebago\t settled near Oshkosh and Platteville. A village people often residing in urbanlike settlements of as many as 100 persons, the Winnebago were primarily hunters and fishers. By the time the first Europeans arrived during the 17th century, they found \TFox\t, \THuron\t, \TIllinois\t, \TKickapoo\t, \TMenominee\t, \TMiami\t, \TOjibwa\t, \TOttawa\t, \TPotawatomi\t, \TSauk\t, and \TSioux\t, as well as the Winnebago. European Period The Frenchman Jean \TNicolet\t, the first European to visit Wisconsin, arrived in the Green Bay area in 1634 to extend the fur trade; he also arranged a peace between the Winnebago and the Ottawa tribes. By 1665 the western Great Lakes basin was occupied by several hundred French fur traders, including Pierre Esprit \TRadisson\t and Medard Groseilliers, who subsequently set up the field base for what would later become the \THudson's Bay Company\t. The Jesuit priest Claude Jean \TAllouez\t established a mission at De Pere, just south of Green Bay, in 1671; also during the 1670s, Jacques \TMarquette\t and Louis \TJolliet\t explored the upper Mississippi River region. Beginning about 1735, French and Indian raiders, gathered from as far west as Wisconsin and, led by Charles Michel de \TLanglade\t, attacked the British along the Appalachian Mountains. Even before the last of the French and Indian Wars was over in 1763, however, the British had occupied former French outposts in Wisconsin. Twenty years later, following the American Revolution, possession of Wisconsin passed to the United States; it was not until shortly after the War of 1812, however, that the federal government garrisoned a post in the state. A New Yorker, James Lockwood, reported as late as 1827 that his was the only American family at Prairie du Chien in a community of Scottish and French settlers numbering nearly 200. Territory and State To protect Wisconsin's few but growing number of American settlers, the federal government began, in 1817, to build Forts Howard (Green Bay), Crawford (Prairie du Chien), and Winnebago (Portage). Early commanders of these frontier outposts included Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis. From 1818 to 1836, Wisconsin was administered as part of the territory of Michigan. A lead rush to the southwestern corner of Wisconsin encouraged Congress to grant separate territorial status on July 4, 1836, by which time 16,000 of the territory's 22,000 inhabitants lived in the lead-ore district. The newly appointed governor, Henry Dodge, selected Belmont, a small crossroads village in Lafayette County, as the seat of the first territorial legislature. After much bribing of territorial delegates, however, Dodge's political opponent, Judge James Doty of Green Bay, was able to have a swampy site--present-day Madison--in central Dane County, where Doty owned several hundred acres of land, chosen as the permanent territorial capital. Another influx of immigrants between 1840 and 1850, much of it into eastern Wisconsin, increased the population of the territory tenfold to 305,000. After several referendums requesting statehood failed, voters finally elected to petition Congress in 1846. Two years later, on May 29, 1848, President Polk signed a bill making Wisconsin the 30th state. Now securely part of the United States, Wisconsin saw its population burgeon during the 1850s to more than 700,000. During that decade nearly 300,000 immigrants entered the state, 45% of them from Germany. This meant, however, that when the Civil War broke out in 1861, many residents did not feel strongly about the Union cause; as a result, Wisconsin sent only 10% of its adult males to the Union armies. The Civil War interrupted Wisconsin's economic growth. The frontier of settlement remained virtually unchanged from 1860 to 1870. The next decade, however, saw farming expand northward, aided by such new harvesting machinery as the reaper and by the substitution of horses for oxen as draft animals. After the mid-1870s some farmers turned to dairying, at first concentrating on butter but later on cheese, because it spoiled less easily. Next to agriculture, lumbering was the state's leading industry from 1890 to 1910. Logs from the mature mixed forests of northern Wisconsin were floated down rivers to sawmills in the south, especially in Milwaukee and in the Fox River valley. 20th Century A population that was 60% rural in 1900 was more than half urban by the time the Depression of the 1930s struck. Even by 1940 almost 14% of Wisconsin's labor force was still unemployed, and two workers in three earned less than $1,000 a year. World War II cut unemployment and increased wages but brought new problems in its wake. Greater industrialization has depleted natural resources and has created pollutants that threaten tourism and dairy farming. The thousands of blacks that have come to Wisconsin since 1945 suffer disproportionately from poor housing, high unemployment, and other social ills. In the early 1960s the federal government, believing that Indians would benefit from an end to reservations, made the Menominee Indian reservation Wisconsin's 72d county. When this experiment turned out to be a failure, reservation status was restored by Congress in 1973. A 17-year legal battle between state officials and the Chippewa Indians was resolved in 1991 when the Chippewa won the right to gather plants, hunt, and spear fish off reservations in northern Wisconsin. The ruling, however, sets limits on the fishing catch and prevents the Chippewa from harvesting timber off the reservation. Delmar C. Multhauf Bibliography: Brody, Polly, Discovering Wisconsin (1973); Current, Richard N., The History of Wisconsin: The Civil War Era, 1848-1873 (1976) and Wisconsin: A Bicentennial History (1977); Danziger, S., and Witte, J., eds., State Policy Choices (1988); Federal Writers' Project, Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State (1941; repr. 1973); Finley, Robert W., Geography of Wisconsin (1975); Gard, Robert E., This Is Wisconsin (1969); Nesbit, Robert C., Wisconsin: A History, 2d rev. ed. (1989); Smith, Alice E., The History of Wisconsin: From Exploration to Statehood (1973); Strang, William A., Wisconsin's Economy in Nineteen Ninety (1982); Vogeler, I., et al, Wisconsin: A Geography (1986).