Page Toppers

• Beautiful Wisconsin, Nature's Wonderland
  (is Home, Sweet Home to Me)
• On, Wisconsin
• Stay Just a Little Bit Longer
• What Made Milwaukee Famous
  (song by Rod Stewart)

Wisconsin Symbols

• Nicknames: The Badger State; America's Dairyland; Cheese State;: The Copper state
• Slogan: Stay Just a Little Bit Longer
• Motto: Forward
• Song: On, Wisconsin (words by J. S. Hubbard and Charles D. Rosa, music by William T. Purdy)
• Waltz: The Wisconsin Waltz
• Ballad: Oh Wisconsin, Land of My Dreams
• Dance: Polka
• Animal: Badger
• Domestic Animal: Dairy Cow
• Wild Animal: White-tailed Deer
• Dog: American Water Spaniel
• Bird: Robin
• Symbol of Peace: Mourning Dove
• Fish: Muskellunge
• Insect: Honeybee
• Tree: Sugar Maple
• Flower: Wood Violet
• Grain: Corn
• Fossil: Trilobite
• Mineral: Galena (lead)
• Rock: Red Granite
• Beverage: Milk
• Pro Sports Teams: Milwaukee Brewers (baseball); Milwaukee Bucks (basketball); Green Bay Packers (football)

Facts About Wisconsin

• Capital: Madison
• Residents: Wisconsinites
• State Name Origin: from a Chippewa word meaning "grassy place"
• Admitted to Statehood: 29 May 1848
• Order of Admission: 30th state
• Coastline/Shoreline: 0/950 miles (Great Lakes)
• Length: 310 miles
• Width: 260 miles
• Area: 65,498 square miles
• Size Rank: 23
• Number of Counties: 72
• Lakes: 14,927
• Streams and Rivers: 57,698 miles
• Geographic Center: 9 miles SE of Marshfield (aka Hub City) in Wood Co.
• Mean Elevation: 1,050 feet
• Highest Point: Timms Hill, 1,951 feet
• Lowest Point: Shore of Lake Michigan, 581 feet
• Agricultural Products: dairy products (produces more milk than any other state), food products, corn, hay, vegetables
• Commercial Products: paper products, non-electric machinery (engines, turbines, farm machinery, etc.), printing, motor vehicles and equipment, medical instruments and supplies, plastics
• Average Annual Rainfall: 30.9 inches
• Average Winter High Temperature: 15 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -55 degrees (4 Feb 1996 Couderay)
• Average Summer High Temperature: over 75 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 114 degrees (13 Jul 1936 Wisconsin Dells)
• Official Language: English
• More information about Wisconsin

Items of Interest

• In 1882 the first hydroelectric plant in the United States was built at Fox River.
• The first practical typewriter was designed in Milwaukee in 1867.
• The American Birkebeiner, a 52K cross-country ski race between Cable and Hayward, is the largest in North American.
• The nation's first kindergarten was started in Watertown in 1856.
• Milwaukee is home of Harley Davidson Motorcycles.
• The Republican Party was founded in Ripon in 1854.
• The Ringling Brothers held their first circus in their hometown of Baraboo in 1884.
• The Hamburger hall of fame is located in Seymour.
• The first ice cream sundaes were served in 1851 in the towns of Manitowoe and Two Rivers.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

• Don Ameche (1908-1993) - actor (Kenosha)
• Roy Chapman Andrews - naturalist and explorer (Beloit)
• Richard Bong (1920-1945) - WWII hero (Superior)
• Carrie Catt - woman suffragist (Ripon)
• Seymour Cray (1925-1996) - developed the super-computer (Chippewa Falls)
• Ellen Corby - actress (Racine)
• Tyne Daly - actress (Madison)
• William DeFoe - actor (Appleton)
• August Derleth (1909-1971) - author (Sauk City)
• Jeanne Dixon - psychic (Medford)
• Chris Farley - actor (Madison)
• Zona Gale - author (Portage)
• Hamlin Garland - author
• King Camp Gillette - industrialist
• Eric Heiden (1958- ) - Olympic speed skater (Madison)
• Woody Herman - band leader (Milwaukee)
• Loretta Sell Hildegarde - singer (Adell)
• Harry Houdini (1874-1926) - magician, escape artist (Appleton)
• Vinnie Hoxie - sculptor
• Thomas Hulce - actor (Whitewater)
• Pee Wee King (1914-2000) - country singer (Abrams)
• George F. Kennan - diplomat (Milwaukee)
• Robert La Follette - political leader (Primrose)
• Liberace (1919-1987) - entertainer pianist (West Allis)
• Allen Ludden - television host (Mineral Point)
• Alfred Lunt - actor (Milwaukee)
• Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) - WWII and Korean war general (lived in Milwaukee)
• Frederic March - actor (Racine)
• Jackie Mason - comedian (Sheboygan)
• Golda Meir (1898-1978) - Israel's first woman prime minister (raised in Milwaukee)
• John Oscar Moen III - cartographer
• Oscar Moen - industrialist
• Pat O'Brien - actor (Milwaukee)
• Georgia O'Keefe - artist (Sun Prairie)
• Les Paul - musician (Waukesha)
• Amy Pietz - actress (Oak Creek)
• Charlotte Rae - actress (Milwaukee)
• William H. Rehnquist - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Milwaukee)
• Charles and John Ringling - circus entrepreneurs (Baraboo)
• Gena Rowlands - actress (Cambria)
• Tom Snyder (1936- ) - newscaster (Milwaukee)
• Spencer Tracy - actor (Milwaukee)
• Bob Uecker - baseball player (Milwaukee)
• Thorstein Veblen - economist (Cato Township)
• Orson Welles - actor, director, producer (Kenosha)
• Gene Wilder (1935- ) - actor (Milwaukee)
• Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) - author (Pepin)
• Thornton Wilder - novelist, playwright (Madison)
• Charles Winninger - actor (Athen)
• Tom Wopat (1951- ) - actor (Lodi)
• Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) - architect (Richland Center)

You know you are from Wisconsin when...

• Your whole family wears green and gold to church on Sunday.
• You define summer as three months of bad sledding.
• Snow tires come standard on all your cars.
• You refer to the Packers as "we."
• You have gotten frostbitten and sunburned in the same week.
• You can identify an Illinois accent.
• You know what cow-tipping is.
• You learned to drive a tractor before the training wheels were off your bike.
• Down South to you means Chicago.
• Traveling coast-to-coast means going from La Crosse to Milwaukee.
• A brat is something you eat.
• You know that Eau Claire is not something you eat.
• You have no problem spelling Milwaukee.
• You consider Madison exotic.
• You got a passport to go to Minnesota.
• You can actually pronounce Oconomowoc.
• You know what a bubbler is.
• Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a cow next to your blue spruce.
• Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new machine shed.
• You go out for fish fry every Friday.
• You can recognize someone from Illinois by their driving.
• You know how to polka.
• You drink soda and refer to your dad as "pop."
• Formal wear is blue jeans and a baseball cap.
• You were unaware there is a legal drinking age.
• Your 4th of July Family Picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
• You know where Waukesha is AND can pronounce it.
• You decided to have a picnic this summer because it fell on a weekend.
• You can visit Luxemburg, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Berlin, New London and Poland all in one afternoon.
• You only know three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.
• You design your Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.
• You've seen mosquitoes with landing lights.
• You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
• You enjoy driving in the winter because the potholes fill in with snow.
• Your sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie.
• You owe more money on your snowmobile than on your car.
• The local paper covers major headlines on 1 page, but requires 4 pages for sports.
• At least twice a year, your kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant.
• Your snow-blower gets stuck on the roof.
• You think the start of deer season is a national holiday.
• You find 0 degrees a little chilly.
• You know what to do with a Blatz.
• You actually understand these jokes.
• You forward them to all your Wisconsin friends.