WISCONSIN

constituent state of the United States of America. One of the north-central states, it is situated between Lake Michigan to the east and the upper Mississippi River to the west. On the north it touches the western portion of Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Minnesota and Iowa lie to the west and southwest, respectively, and to the south is Illinois. The area is 56,153 square miles (145,436 square km). The name Wisconsin is an anglicized version of a French rendering of an Indian name said to mean the place where we live. The state became the 30th member of the Union on May 29, 1848. That same year Madison, the territorial capital from 1836, became the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin. The economy of Wisconsin is diversified, with individual elements spread generally throughout the state, though its three major facets have specific regions of concentration. Its southeastern industrial beltextending across the state line along Lake Michigan from the Chicago area to and beyond Milwaukee, the state's largest cityis the primary factor in making Wisconsin one of the largest manufacturing states in the nation. In the southern two-thirds of the state, a combination of favourable physical factors of climate, soil, and topography makes possible a dairy agriculture that allows Wisconsin to be first in the nation in the production of milk, cheese, and butter. The sparsely settled, northern evergreenhardwood forest and lake country hosts tourist and recreational activity. The Midwest. constituent state of the United States of America, one of the northern states of the Midwest, bounded on the north by Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the east by Lake Michigan, on the south by Illinois, and on the west by Minnesota and Iowa. The capital is Madison. The French explorer Jean Nicolet visited Wisconsin in 1634, and the first permanent European settlement in the region was established in 1717. The area remained under French control until 1763, when it was acquired by Britain. After the American Revolution the region was ceded to the United States, becoming part of the Northwest Territory in 1787 and of the Indiana Territory in 1800. An influx of northern European immigrants began in the 1830s and continued for several decades. In 1836 the Wisconsin Territory was organized, and in 1848 it became the 30th state. The Progressive Movement began in Wisconsin about 1900, resulting in the passage of legislation that made the state a leader in social reform. During the 20th century Wisconsin evolved from an almost entirely rural to a predominantly urban society. Wisconsin comprises five physical regions: the Northern Highland, the Lake Superior Lowland, the Central Plain, the Western Upland, and the Southeastern Ridges and Lowlands. Northern Wisconsin has one of the greatest concentrations of lakes in the world. It is one of the few states in which essentially all drainage is outflowing. Many unique landforms are found in the state such as the rocky Door Peninsula between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, the broad river gorges between the Mississippi and the Wisconsin rivers, the narrow river gorge known as the Wisconsin Dells, the unglaciated Driftless Area in the southwest, and the irregular glacial kettle moraine region in the south-central area. Wisconsin has long, cold winters and warm but relatively short summers. Average January temperatures are between 10 and 22 F (-12 and -6 C), while average July temperatures are between 66 and 72 F (19 and 22 C). The average annual rainfall is about 30 inches (760 mm), and snowfall varies from 30 to 60 inches a year. Forests, covering about 45 percent of the state, are most heavily concentrated in the Northern Highland and Central Plain. Trees are second-growth hardwoods and evergreens. Much of the pine acreage is plantation growth. Common animals include white-tailed deer, fox, rabbit, skunk, squirrel, chipmunk, and gopher; there are many black bear. Waterfowl are abundant, and migratory geese visit the state twice a year. There are more than 170 species of fish, including all the major freshwater game fish and salmon. Germans are the most numerous ethnic group in Wisconsin's population, followed by Poles, Scandinavians, and British. The black population increased by about 80 percent in the 1970s and 1980s to nearly 5 percent of the whole in 1990. The vast majority of blacks reside in southeastern lakeshore cities, particularly Milwaukee. American Indians remaining in the state are concentrated largely in Menominee county (the whole of which is a Menominee Indian reservation) and Milwaukee. The southeastern industrial belt along Lake Michigan is the primary factor in making Wisconsin the 12th largest manufacturing state in the nation. The southern two-thirds of the state supports an agricultural life that makes it the major milk, butter, and cheese producer in the United States. The sparsely settled northern forest and lake country hosts much of the tourist and recreational activity in the upper Midwest. The greater population density of the southeast is reflected in the focus of major transportation routes around Milwaukee. Intercity and intracity bus service is widespread. Wisconsin ports handle more than one-fourth of the domestic freight tonnage of the Great Lakes. Madison and Milwaukee are served by large commercial airlines and, along with smaller cities, by regional or commuter lines. Besides being the state's major system of public higher education, with numerous regional campuses plus the original one at Madison, the University of Wisconsin contributes substantially to the arts and culture of the state. The Milwaukee Art Museum has an outstanding collection of 20th-century art. Many local folk festivals are held annually, such as the William Tell Pageant in New Glarus and the Song of Norway in Blue Mounds. Newspapers and commercial television and radio reach all parts of the state; educational television stations are located in Madison and Milwaukee. Area 56,153 square miles (145,436 square km). Pop. (1990) 4,891,769. Additional reading Writers' Program, Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State (1941, reissued 1978), is dated but still contains much useful information. The state's features are covered by Robert W. Finley, Geography of Wisconsin, rev. ed. (1976), a broad picture of the state's physical and cultural geography; Gwen M. Schultz, Wisconsin's Foundations: A Review of the State's Geology and Its Influence on Geography and Human Activity (1986), a well-illustrated work for the nonspecialist; and Ingolf Vogeler, Wisconsin: A Geography (1986). State atlases include Arthur H. Robinson and Jerry B. Culver (eds.), The Atlas of Wisconsin: General Maps and Gazetteer (1974); and DeLorme Mapping Company, Wisconsin Atlas & Gazetteer, 5th ed. (1998).Robert E. Ritzenthaler, Prehistoric Indians of Wisconsin, 3rd ed., rev. by Lynne G. Goldstein (1985), examines the archaeological evidence of Native American occupation in Wisconsin from the time of the last glaciation, approximately 10,000 years ago, to about AD 1000. It may be supplemented by Carol I. Mason, Introduction to Wisconsin Indians: Prehistory to Statehood (1988). William Fletcher Thompson (ed.), The History of Wisconsin, 6 vol. (197398), is a well-researched comprehensive work covering the period from early exploration to the mid-1960s. Robert C. Nesbit, Wisconsin: A History (1973); and Richard Nelson Current, Wisconsin: A Bicentennial History (1977), are introductions. The journals Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters (annual); and Wisconsin Magazine of History (quarterly), contain scholarly articles on the state. Rhodes W. Fairbridge The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica