Wisconsin 101

The Saratoga of the West: Resort Culture in the Waukesha Springs Era

Bethesda Spring Park, ca. 1900. The springhouse stands on the right. The spring runs into the pond, which reflects the words “1868-Bethesda.” The Terrace Hotel can be seen in the left background. People sit on the lawn and stand around the springhouse.…

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February 20, 2023

Waukesha County / Region 8 - South East / Related Stories / Henk Mineral Spring Water Bottle / Waukesha / Food & Cooking / Manufacturing & Trade / Science & Medicine / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment

Nature’s Purest Drink: The Henk Mineral Spring Company

As a center of the mineral spring water industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Waukesha, Wisconsin, saw the rise of over 200 spring water companies during the period known as the Waukesha Springs Era. With over fifty mineral springs…

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February 19, 2023

Read more about the article Platteville’s Mining History

The Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, showing a Cornish miner right of the shield, circa 1881. Image ID: 91654. Wisconsin Historical Society

Grant County / 2000-2020 / 2020-2040 / Region 6 - South West / Related Stories / Platteville / Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill / Manufacturing & Trade / 1820-1840 / 1840-1860 / 1860-1880 / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / Education / 1960-1980 / 1980-2000

Platteville’s Mining History

The Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, showing a Cornish miner right of the shield, circa 1881. Image ID: 91654. Wisconsin Historical Society The Platteville lead boom spanned from 1827 to 1849, bringing diverse groups of people and the mining industry…

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December 21, 2022

Read more about the article Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society.

Beetown / Grant County / Region 6 - South West / Related Stories / Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill / 1840-1860 / Politics, Society & Government / 1860-1880 / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / Education / Ethnicity & Identity

Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society. Pleasant Ridge was a rural agricultural community located near present-day Beetown in central Grant County that…

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December 21, 2022

A Bulgarian miner operating a pneumatic rock drill at a zinc mine in Platteville, circa the early 1900s. Image courtesy of The Mining and Rollo Jamison Museums Platteville, WI.

Eastern European Immigration to Wisconsin

Between the 1880s to the 1920s, a new wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to arrive in Wisconsin. The Eastern European immigrants included Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Russians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians. Eastern European countries at this time struggled with overpopulation,…

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December 20, 2022

Read more about the article The Whiskey War of 1854

The Wisconsin House (left) and Al Ringling Theatre (right). Before the theater was built, the Wisconsin House occupied the land. The Brick Tavern—located within the Wisconsin House—was the main target of the Baraboo Whiskey War, an event that would see its stock dumped. The Theatre was built in 1915 on the same site. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID # 29104 & 72938

Baraboo / Sauk County / Region 6 - South West / Related Stories / The Canfield Temperance Case / Food & Cooking / Politics, Society & Government / 1840-1860 / Religion

The Whiskey War of 1854

Alcohol consumption is an integral and often contentious facet of American life and has been for most of the nation’s history. In the 1800s, the public believed alcohol had medicinal properties and regulated health. However, the harmful effects of drunkenness on the…

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October 4, 2022