Wisconsin 101

Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding and Drydock Company

The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal opened in 1881 to provide a sailing route through the Door Peninsula to both shorten the shipping distance between cities on Green Bay and Lake Michigan and to avoid the treacherous waters of the Porte des Mortes…

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June 10, 2025

Janesville / Industry / Related Stories / Rock County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / 1945-1965 / 1965-1987 / 1987-2011 / Transportation & Tourism / Chevy Caprice / Region 7 - South Center

Janesville General Motors Assembly Plant

The Janesville Assembly Plant’s near ninety-year run helped define both the city and its workers and the General Motors Company as one of the most successful automakers in the world. The history of the plant is deeply rooted in Janesville’s agricultural past.…

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February 17, 2025

Ellison Bay / Object Histories / Food & Cooking / Door County / 1945-1965 / Transportation & Tourism / Region 5 - Center East / Fish Boil Kettle

OBJECT HISTORY: Fish Boil Kettle

Door County may be the only place in the world where you can expect to be fed a meal that was cooked in a washing machine. The area’s earliest history surrounds fishing, and later tourism which, every year, brings in over $500…

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April 10, 2024

602 Club / Education / Dane County / Madison / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / Politics & Government / 1945-1965 / Society & Religion / Region 7 - South Center

The Gay Purge of University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1962-63

Gay students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have not always received the protection they do today; in fact, from 1962-1963 the university attempted to systematically identify and expel gay students. The Dean of Men, in collaboration with Student Health Services and the…

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November 2, 2023

Broad History / Eau Claire / Education / Related Stories / Eau Claire County / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / 1945-1965 / 1965-1987 / Region 3 - Center West / Council Oak Tree

UW–Eau Claire History

Today, The University of Wisconsin System consists of 11 four-year campuses that educate over 165,000 students. But this extensive institution grew from very modest beginnings. Most of the universities that formed the UW System began as one-building teacher’s colleges, and for the…

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October 5, 2021

Industry / Marathon / Related Stories / 1877-1900 / Marathon County / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / 1945-1965 / Region 4 - Center / Marathon Brewing Company "Superfine" Beer Bottle

The Marathon Brewery’s Chain of Calamities

In the early 1880s, Franz Sindermann, who was trained as a brewer in Germany, formed a brewery in Marathon, Wisconsin with his brother, August, along with a third partner, Charles Klein. The brewery got off to a good start, producing 300 barrels…

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September 14, 2021