In the 1800s, European immigrants coming to America had to find a way to preserve the objects indispensable to their lives, bringing their most precious belongings on an ocean voyage to a far-away new home. Most families were only able to bring…
Before the 1850s, Wisconsin did not have roads, at least not ones you would recognize. As more people moved to Wisconsin, settlers cut thick prairies and forests into roads, but these were just dirt paths that were often quite muddy. As a solution, Wisconsinites decided to build plank roads which had a lot of advantages over the dirt ones.
Between the 1840s and the 1890s, logs meant money. Wisconsin had a large supply of trees. Lumber mills made money by cutting down trees. Logging was one of the largest industries in Wisconsin. There were more than 450 lumber camps across Wisconsin. If we study this log-marking hammer and think about the people that used…
As the lumber industry flourished in Wisconsin beginning in the 1840s, immigrants from all over Europe and Canada came to live and work in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. All winter, men called lumberjacks would cut down pine trees, preparing the timber to be used as building material, or sometimes to be turned into pulp or…
When was the last time you voted? Today? Yesterday? Maybe last week? Voting can be simple and a good way to let people know what you want. You may have voted, for example, on where to get dinner. You and one family…
As immigration to Wisconsin swelled in the 1840s, so, too, did the state’s scientific and technological community, with innovations across industries ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to geology and environmental studies. Among Wisconsin’s first “pioneer scientists” was Increase A. Lapham, a young…