Wisconsin |
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| Entered the Union: May 29, 1848 (30) | Capital: Madison | |
| Origin of Name: From the Cheppewa Indian word "Ouisconsin" believed to mean "river that meanders through something red." | ||
| State Nickname: Badger State | State Motto: Forward | |
| State Tree:Sugar Maple | State Flower: Wood Violet | |
| State Dog: American Water Spaniel | State Bird: Robin | |
| State Wildlife Animal: White-tailed Deer | State Animal: Badger | |
| State Domestic Animal: Dairy Cow | State Fish: Muskellunge | |
| State Insect: Honey Bee | State Grain: Corn | |
| State Beverage: Milk | State Rock: Red Granite | |
| State Symbol of Peace: Mourning Dove | State Mineral: Galena | |
| State Song “On Wisconsin" | State Dance: Polka | |
| National Forests: 2 • State Forests: 13 • State Parks: 50 • Recreation Areas: 11 | ||
| Famous For: 14,000 Lakes, Milwaukee Music Festival, House on the Rock, Snowmobiling | ||
| Famous Wisconsonites: Richard Bong (WWII Flying Ace), Seymour Cray (Developed the super-computer), Eric Heiden (skater), Woody Herman (band leader), Harry Houdini (magician), William D. Leahy (admiral), Liberace (pianist), Douglas MacArthur (WWII General), Don Ameche, Pat O'Brien, Spencer Tracy, Gene Wilder (actors), William H. Rehnquist (US Supreme Court), Tom Snyder (newscaster), Orson Welles (actor, producer), Laura Ingalls Wilder (Author of the Little House books), Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) | ||
| Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | ||
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| The Winnebago, Menominee, and Dakota Indians lived in Wisconsin when the first French explorer arrived in 1634. | |||||||||||||
| French explorer, Jean Nicolet, landed at Green Bay in 1634. In 1660 a French trading post and Catholic mission were established near present-day Ashland. | |||||||||||||
| Great Britain obtained the region in settlement of the French and Indian Wars in 1763; the U.S. acquired it in 1783 after the Revolutionary War. However, Great Britain retained actual control until after the War of 1812. | |||||||||||||
| In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act allowed settlers of the two states to decide the question of slavery in their state. Many Wisconsinites opposed slavery and held a meeting to protest the possibility of slavery within the new states. This meeting in Ripon, led to the foundation of the Republican Party. | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin is known as the Badger State after the habits of early miners in the region who either lived in mine shafts or dug their homes out of the sides of hills -- just like Badgers do. | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin is the dairy capital of the United States and is sometimes called "America's Dairyland." It has about 1.27 million dairy cows (second only to California), produces about 14% of the entire country's milk. | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin has over 14,000 lakes and 7,446 streams and rivers. | |||||||||||||
| Milwaukee's Summerfest is the nation's largest music festival, with over 2,500 performers. | |||||||||||||
| Milwaukee is home of Harley Davidson Motorcycles. | |||||||||||||
| Door County has five state parks and 250 miles of shoreline along Lake Michigan. | |||||||||||||
| 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. | |||||||||||||
| Wausau is the Ginseng Capital of the World. | |||||||||||||
| The American Birkebeiner, a 52K cross-country ski race between Cable and Hayward, is the largest on the North American continent. | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin snowmobile trails total 15,210 miles of signed and groomed snow highways. Eagle River is known as the Snowmobile Capital of the World. | |||||||||||||
| Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells is the nation's largest water-themed park. | |||||||||||||
| The nation's first kindergarten was established in Watertown in 1856. Its first students were local German-speaking youngsters. | |||||||||||||
| The original Barbie is from Willows. Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. | |||||||||||||
| The first Ringling Brothers Circus was staged in Baraboo in 1884. | |||||||||||||
| Monroe is the Swiss Cheese Capital of the World. | |||||||||||||
| With an average of 2,500 performers, Milwaukee's Summerfest is the nation's largest music festival. | |||||||||||||
| Two Rivers is the home of the ice cream sundae. | |||||||||||||
| The Republican Party was founded in Ripon in 1854. | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin's ethnic roots: German 42.6%, Irish 10.9%, Polish 9.3%, Norwegian 8.5%, English 6.5% | |||||||||||||
| Wisconsin, with many cultural remnants of its heavy German settlement, is known as the most "German-American" state. | |||||||||||||
| Religion in Wisconsin: (85%) Christian (Protestant 55%, Catholic 29%) No Religion (14%) | |||||||||||||
| Designed and built in the early 1940s, the House on the Rock is considered an architectural marvel and is perched on a 60-foot chimney of rock. The 14-room house is now a complex of rooms, streets, buildings, and gardens covering over 200 acres. The Infinity Room contains 3,264 windows. | |||||||||||||
At a Glance
Wisconsin Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | May 29, 1848 (30) |
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| Capital | Madison |
| Nickname | Badger State |
| State Bird | Robin |
| State Flower | Wood Violet |
| State Tree | Sugar Maple |
New for 2026
More Wisconsin Facts & Photos
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, set aside in 1970, protects 21 islands and a stretch of mainland on Lake Superior. Waves have carved sandstone sea caves along the shore, and in cold winters they freeze into glittering ice caves that visitors can reach on foot.
Wisconsin's official state fossil is the trilobite Calymene celebra, adopted in 1985. Named for its three-lobed body, the extinct marine animal is common in the dolomite of eastern Wisconsin, where thousands of specimens have been collected since the 1830s.
The highest natural point in Wisconsin is Timms Hill, in Price County, at 1,951 feet. An observation tower on top gives 30-mile views across the Northwoods and Bass Lake, about 160 feet below.
Conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote his classic A Sand County Almanac at a worn-out farm he bought along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo in 1935. Published in 1949, the book laid out his "land ethic" and helped shape the American conservation movement.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
William H. Rehnquist
“But the greatest injury of the 'wall' notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intentions of the drafters of the Bill of Rights ... The "wall of separation between church and state" is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.”
Supreme Court
Douglas MacArthur
"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it. "
WWII General
William H. Rehnquist
“It is truly surprising that the state must assign a greater value to a mother's decision to cut off a potential human life by abortion than to a father's decision to let it mature into a live child.”
Supreme Court
Harry S. Truman
"We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God."
President
Abraham Lincoln
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."
President
Theodore Roosevelt
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight."
President
Last updated: July 2026