Wisconsin, the twentieth in area and fourteenth in population of the United States, lies between Lakes Michigan and Superior and the Mississippi River, with its tributary the St Croix ; the surrounding states are Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Its length is about 300 miles and its breadth 250, with an area of 56,040 sq. m. The surface is a rolling plain with an elevation of 600 feet, rising to 1800 feet at the divide, about 30 miles south of Lake Superior. The general slope is south-westward towards the Mississippi, into which fourth-fifths of the streams flow. The principal of these are the Chippewa, the Black, and the Wisconsin, which furnish abundant water-power. The Fox, which occupies part of the same valley with the Wisconsin, flows north-eastward into Green Bay. It also passes through Lake Winnebago, the largest lake entirely within the state (28 miles by 10). There are about two thousand small lakes, often with picturesque outlets through narrow rocky gorges called 'dells,' or in the north forming rapids or cascades. These lakes are a striking proof of extensive glacial action, and a range of hills, the Kettle moraine, marks the edge of the enormous bed of ice which once covered all the state except the south-western part, called by geologists the 'driftless area.' The Archean rocks of the northern part of the state testify that this was the oldest part of the continent. Next come the Huronian rocks, containing valuable beds of iron ore, and intermixed in the north-west with the copper-bearing formation of Lake Superior. To the south are sandstone and limestone formations, furnishing excellent building material, and in the south-west containing lead and zinc ores. Dense forests, consisting chiefly of white pine and other coniferous trees, but having also oaks and other deciduous trees, once covered most of the state, though the southern part is prairie land, with many oak groves or 'openings.' The present forest area is 48.8 per cent. of the whole (but see TIMBER, p. 211). The average annual temperature of the state is 42°, but in the southern part it is 46°.
The chief industry in the state is agriculture, employing about 400,000 persons. In 1891 the grain-product was valued at 38,849,322. In the product of lumber Wisconsin ranks third among the states, the amount in 1885 being valued at 27,000,000, while the manufactures of wood were valued at 14,000,000, and those of wagons, &c. at 5,000,000. In the lumber regions extensive conflagrations sometimes occur, the most disastrous being in October 1871, when the fire swept over portions of eight counties and destroyed a thousand lives. In iron-mining Wisconsin holds
Copyright 1892 in U.S.
by J. B. Lippincott
Company. the sixth rank, its product being over 116,000 tons of pig-iron and 60,000 tons of rolled iron. Manufactures of leather amount to 9,000,000; and beer is produced, chiefly at Milwaukee, to the value of 11,000,000 annually. Wisconsin is divided into sixty-eight counties, and sends nine representatives to congress. Education is liberally supported. The University of Wisconsin, founded at Madison in 1850, had in its several colleges at the end of the century 125 instructors and 5800 students. The state has also normal schools and an excellent system of public schools. The state capital is Madison, the leading commercial city Milwaukee. Other cities are La Crosse, Oshkosh, Racine, Eau Claire, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Superior, Appleton, Marinette, Janesville.
Artificial earth-mounds (see MOUND BUILDERS), some in the form of animals, as the turtle and buffalo, are the earliest works of man in Wisconsin. Jean Nicollet was the first white man who visited the state, having entered the Fox River in 1634. In 1665 a Jesuit mission was founded on Green Bay, and French fur-traders soon established trading-posts. Upon the conquest of Canada in 1763 Wisconsin passed under British control, which lasted practically till 1815. Wisconsin Territory, when formed in 1836, extended as far as the Dakotas; but in 1838 the Mississippi was made its western boundary. Ten years later it was admitted as a state. Special efforts were made to attract immigration by the offer of cheap lands, and the result has been an unusually large foreign element in the population—chiefly German and Scandinavian, but including also French and Swiss. Many of these foreigners settled in communities, which have tenaciously preserved their original language and customs. Roman Catholics form the most numerous religious body, followed successively by Lutherans, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists. The first railroad was built in 1850; in 1898 there were 6240 miles. During the civil war Wisconsin furnished to the Federal army 91,327 soldiers. Pop. (1850) 305,391; (1870) 1,054,670; (1880) 1,315,477; (1890) 1,686,880; (1900) 2,068,963. Besides a few civilised Indians, there still remain in the state about 9000 tribal Indians, mostly Chippewas, on 416,800 acres of reservations.