Welcome to our “Hall of Fame” of Wisconsin Originals. We just know you’ll enjoy reading about the people and places that prove here in Wisconsin, we live like we mean it!
The father of modern environmental ethics, wildlife management and wilderness preservation, Aldo Leopold honed his land ethic in a worn-out Wisconsin farm which the family restored to a forest of dreams. The Shack, a re-built chicken coop along the Wisconsin River where Leopold and his family stayed during weekend retreats, inspired many of the essays in the conservation classic, A Sand County Almanac. And now they come – young and old – to celebrate his land ethic at the famous Leopold Shack in central Wisconsin and at the Leopold Legacy Center northeast of Baraboo.
The windswept beaches and cliffs formed by centuries of Lake Superior waves crashing against ancient shores is captured and preserved in the 21 islands and 12 miles of mainland that comprise this treasure that is now part of the National Parks Service. The area is a unique blend of cultural and natural resources, where the original Native Americans and pioneering settlers grew together in peace, awe and respect of nature’s beauty. Lighthouses still guide the way along Lake Superior’s wilderness areas, where visitors can hike, paddle, sail, or cruise to experience these Jewels of Lake Superior, often accessed via Bayfield, also known as the “Gateway to the Apostle Islands.”
Saddened by the Red Sox failure to cut the mustard against the Mets in the 1986 World Series, Barry Levenson turned a cliché into lifelong therapy. The former Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General turned all his attention to making a case for this condiment and hit a homerun in 1992 by establishing the National Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, which has more than 4,400 mustards and hundreds of items of mustard memorabilia. Come the fall of 2009, the museum is expected to transform into a “palace” – in downtown Middleton.
Buckingham U. Badger, or Bucky Badger for short, is the 1940 creation of Art Evans. The larger-than-life stripe-sweatered, kid-hugging modern Bucky Badger often comes out on top in national competitions for “Favorite Mascot.” Without uttering a word – and despite shouldering a 35-pound costume head – Bucky always manages to rally Wisconsin Badger fans with playful antics, air punching and defending the University of Wisconsin campus as Badger territory. Look for him to really get into the spirit during the famed “Fifth Quarter” of football games when the band is the main attraction.
A bum leg and love of outdoor winter sports prompted Carl Eliason to create his one-of-a-kind “motor toboggan,” which led to the 1927 patent of what we now call the snowmobile. The invention helped the resident of snowy Sayner in Vilas County to not only keep up, but sometimes beat, his hunting companions to the best spots.
From the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board we bring you this tutorial on cheese curds: Invented in the Dairy State, curds are peanut-sized pieces of fresh Cheddar cheese in their natural, random shape before being processed into blocks and aged. They have to be very fresh to be really good, so that means they don't go far from home. In the first few hours, they “squeak” when you bite into them. Purists like them just as they are, although deep-fried in beer batter (but of course) is very popular too.
Run away and explore the circus – the Greatest Show on Earth. Wisconsin nurtured some of the best known acts under the Big Top, including the seven brothers who created the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1884 in Baraboo. The Circus World Museum preserves the legacy of The Ringling Brothers, with the real stars today being the world’s largest collection of antique restored circus wagons and amazing circus posters.
Who would ever guess that a kid kicking around a salt sack filled with sand, leaves and pebbles because he couldn’t afford a football would become the man behind the mighty Green Bay Packers? Earl "Curly" Lambeau eventually got a ball, grew up and convinced his employer, the Indian Packing Company, to donate money to start up a football team. The rest is a testament to passion and perseverance. Lambeau revolutionized professional football by legitimizing passing in a game that had focused on running while placing building blocks for the Packers and their forever home at Lambeau Field.
The Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh offers a unique service – valet parking for airplanes – during the annual EAA AirVenture show each summer. It’s the world's largest and most significant annual aviation event drawing more than 10,000 planes of every size, shape and description of aircraft from home-built and antique to military and space shuttles to Wisconsin. On the ground, aviation enthusiasts savor the opportunity to inspect planes close-up and watch daily flying exhibitions by expert pilots.
Known for loving the lay of the land, Frank Lloyd Wright’s nature-inspired architecture and interior design is known worldwide. Also a writer, educator and philosopher this Richland Center-born overachiever designed more than 1,000 projects, of which more than 500 resulted in completed works, including Wisconsin’s Taliesin, Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, Seth Peterson Cottage, S.C. Johnson Wax Administration Building, plus many others.
Mother Earth’s protecting father, Gaylord Nelson, hailed from Clear Lake in the very heart of America and Northwest Wisconsin, and went to to become the founder of Earth Day. The Democratic State Senator, three-term U.S. senator and 35th governor of Wisconsin, was honored by naming a national treasure for him – The Gaylord Nelson Wilderness area within the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
The famous image of his son leaping a chasm from one towering sandstone bluff to another in Wisconsin Dells literally shows how Wisconsin photographer Henry Hamilton Bennett pushed the then-emerging art of photography to a new plateau. Known as the father of modern photography, H.H. Bennett’s ability to capture the haunting geological beauty nature has etched on the landscape drew tourists to the Wisconsin Dells and set the bar for landscape photography so high even Ansel Adams strained to reach it.
The founders of Harley-Davidson, William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson, put their heads together in a tiny shed trying to make a fast motorcycle. Miraculously their experiment with internal combustion did not burn down the shed. That was more than 100 years ago and today the Harley-Davidson motorcycle remains the ultimate symbol of rebellion. With a new museum in Milwaukee, there is at last a permanent destination for pilgrimages by the loyal followers who own the open road thanks to their Harleys.
Every soul yearns for the “great escape,” but none more than Appleton’s Harry Houdini, who pushed the limits in his quest for the ultimate illusion as a magician, escapologist and stunt performer. A fascinating man in nearly every aspect, Houdini flew airplanes and held a 1921 patent for an underwater diving suit he designed. The amazing man from Appleton died on Oct. 31, 1926, from complications of a burst appendix at age 52. His life and illusions are immortalized at his famous museum in Appleton.
Stand in the mouth of a giant muskie and you’ll get hooked on fishing in Wisconsin. Hayward is the home of the largest muskie in the world, a four-story replica that houses the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame surrounded by a delightful array of larger-than-life freshwater fish. This must be where they hide the ones that get away.
An impeccably designed faucet, bathtub or kitchen sink has every likelihood of having originated in Wisconsin, thanks to the Kohler Company. Coming to the Sheboygan area from Austria in 1873, the Kohler family and its company is currently headed by Herbert Vollrath Kohler. Under his leadership, the company has dramatically diversified, creating nationally acclaimed golf courses at his American Club Resort in the city that bears his last name. These courses have been the site of the PGA Championship, the U.S. Women’s Open, The U.S. Senior Open and the Ryder Cup.
Decades ago, House on the Rock’s founder, Alex Jordan, created a serious tribute to the eccentric, collectible and eclectic – and what has become one of Wisconsin’s most visited attractions. This nearly indescribable place is an exclamation point on the beautiful terrain of Spring Green and a delightful tribute to the quirks of humanity and its inventions from swords and suits of armor to the world's largest carousel.
The world-renowned International Crane Foundation research and refuge facility in Baraboo is the only place in the world where visitors can see all15 species of cranes. Established in 1973 by two Cornell University graduate students – George Archibald and Ron Sauey – on a farm owned by Sauey’s parents, the center is credited for guaranteeing the future of these lovely and rare creatures for future generations.
John Muir’s love of nature evolved as he struggled to tame the prairie on his family’s fledgling Fountain Lake Farm where they emigrated from Scotland when young John was just 11 years old, in 1849. Influenced by his youthful explorations of that post-glacial landscape and its ancient history, and his studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Muir’s views remain the blueprint for modern conservation and led him to become co-founder of The Sierra Club and the “father of the National Parks Service.”
A Wisconsin girl from root to tassel, Laura Ingalls Wilder was born near Pepin in 1867. Her chronicling of childhood in what was then the wilds of Wisconsin became the classic children’s book, “Little House in the Big Woods.” You can still visit her log home during Pepin’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Days.
Today’s rock ‘n rollers know him by the instrument bearing his name: Jazz guitarist Les Paul, father of the solid-body electric guitar, was born and raised in Waukesha. The characteristic sound and electric amplification that are the hallmark of rock and roll might never have happened without him. Milwaukee’s Discovery World has a Les Paul's House of Sound exhibit, which runs through December 31, 2009, where you can “play” a virtual jam session with the master himself.
Professional male and female lumberjacks and logrollers from around the world compete for the largest purse in lumberjack competition at this quintessential Wisconsin event. More than 12,000 spectators watch as participants compete in speed sawing, chopping events, pole climbing and logrolling. Saw-carving demonstrations add to the visual display, and spectators can get in on the fun by trying their hand at pole climbing and logrolling at the Paul Bunyan training camp.
Balanced like a delicate white bird about to take flight over Lake Michigan, the unique mechanized architectural sculpture Santiago Calatrava designed as an addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum has forever changed the landscape of Milwaukee. Its iconic form is often the magnet that draws visitors to discover one of the Midwest’s most impressive and diversified collections of art inside. Those collections are in constant rotation with outstanding traveling exhibits that appeal to art lovers of all ages.
The Mount Horeb Trollway could easily be explained by the over-active imaginations and occasional over-indulgence of highly-skilled Norwegian craftsmen, but that would be too simple. Instead, there is a tale involving Norwegian troll wars and village expulsion resulting in harassment via troll carvings. In any case, the Trollway in Mount Horeb is dotted with the whimsical Norwegian gnomes in tribute to their mischievous nature for all to enjoy.
Celebrate culture, celebrate seasons and life, learn about Native American people through the dances and songs of young and old at Wisconsin’s tribal pow wows. From harvest to competitive tribal dancing and drumming, a pow wow builds appreciation for tribal heritage and passes down culture from generation to generation. It’s also a social event among tribes, friends and travelers who want to experience a memorable, intricate and colorful occasion.
Women, beauty and the desire to win their favor has been said to launch ships, but in Waukesha County, it inspired the first commercial outboard motor. Norway native Ole Evinrude was chagrined when the ice cream cone he’d been sent to fetch for his girlfriend melted during the return trip by rowboat. He later co-founded the Milwaukee custom engine firm Clemick & Evinrude.
Fans of Chicago sports called Wisconsin fans "cheeseheads" as an insult. Milwaukeean Ralph Bruno turned that cheesy comment into big business, fashioning the now infamous cheesehead hat out of polyurethane foam. By the end of the 1987 season, the wedge-shaped hats had become a Wisconsin fan’s slice of heaven. The color of cheddar with Swiss cheese holes, the cheesehead hats are gouda with Wisconsin.
Wisconsin artisan cheese is what Sid Cook, owner and operator of Carr Valley Cheese, is all about. The company, more than 100 years old, is nestled amongst the rolling hills and lush pastures of central Wisconsin. In the past three years alone, Carr Valley cheeses have won more than 60 top awards in U.S. and international competitions, many of them Sid's one-of-a-kind American Originals – artisan cheeses you won't find made anywhere else in the world. You must try their Aged Cheddar and Cocoa Cardona. Way to curd, Sid!
For all the water that was to follow, it’s amusing to note that Stan Anderson’s concept for the country’s first indoor waterpark was sketched out on a napkin. In this case, the mother of invention was Mother Nature herself and the simple reality that Wisconsin has long winters with lots of time to fill. Anderson conceived of the idea of putting a roof over a water attraction after attending an amusement park convention in the south. He retuned home to Wisconsin Dells and weather-proofed that particular attraction at his Polynesian Resort. Today, he’s widely considered the “Father of the Indoor Water Park,” having turned winter into summer, an idea that caught on like indoor plumbing.
Fondly known as the “Birkie,” the Subaru American Birkebeiner is the nation's largest and most prestigious cross-country ski marathon. Literally thousands of skiers from all over the world strive to conquer the 51-kilometer course from Cable to the city of Hayward each February. Now much more than the central race itself, the Birkie is a winter event including a shorter course 23-kilometer sister race the Kortelopet, short distance sprints for both elite and citizen skiers, the Jr. Birkie for teenagers, a children's and a 12-kilometer noncompetitive ski events.
America’s party on Lake Michigan, Summerfest fills 12 stages with more than 800 national, regional and local acts in just 11 days. The "World's Largest Music Festival" draws nearly a million music lovers to revel in alternative, pop, hip-hop, classic rock, jazz, country, blues, Cajun/zydeco, alternative, soul and comedy. While there, nearly 50 area restaurants provide a plethora of culinary delights.
Tom Every, better known as Dr. Evermore, saw a mountain of Wisconsin history in the trash heaps of defunct industry and turned recycling into an art. A former scrap-metal dealer, Every saved the best of turn-of-the-century industrial craftsmanship by designing exhibits for House on the Rock, a museum dedicated to eccentricity. In addition, his artistic vision for reuse and redesign, which has garnered national acclaim, has wrought in iron and steel hundreds of scrap metal sculptures, including the Foreverton Machine, which reaches six stories and is identified as the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world. Every’s sculptures can be seen on the west side of Hwy. 12 north of Sauk City and south of Baraboo.
Milwaukee native Thomson Bartlett touched the lives of more than 50 million (and counting) with his water ski show, including wartime soldiers in the Far East. A radio broadcaster by trade, Bartlett caught the water ski fever in 1949. He brought his traveling show to Wisconsin Dells in 1953 and never left. Today, the Tommy Bartlett Show is considered the longest-running, live outdoor entertainment show of its kind. Bartlett, at age 79, was inducted into the Water Ski Hall of Fame in Cypress Gardens, Florida. Ironically, he only ever water-skied once in his life – on his 70th birthday. Bartlett passed away in 1998 at the age of 84.
Arguably the most legendary football coach of all time, Vince Lombardi honed his coaching skills by improving the skills of underdogs in the emerging sport of football. Backed with military training and a hard-work ethic the Packers needed to shape their potential, Lombardi arrived in Green Bay in 1959. By the time he left in 1967, the green and gold dominated professional football, collecting six division titles, five NFL championships, two Super Bowls (I and II) and acquiring a record of 98-30-4.
Life doesn’t get any more authentic than tossing farm animal byproducts “for fun.” More than 1,000 competitors and 50,000 spectators gather each year for one of the most unique and hilarious state competitions in the country. Competitors from around the world take their shot at breaking the men's (Greg Neumaier, 248 feet) and women's (Terry Wallschlaeger, 157 feet, 6 inches) records. Anyone can get in on the fun, including kids– with their parent's permission of course.
The World Championship Snowmobile Derby, held every January in northern Wisconsin, is the NASCAR for snowmobilers. More than 300 professional snowmobile racers, some from as far away as Japan, and 30,000 spectators converge in Wisconsin’s northwoods for one the largest gatherings of "sledders" in the world. Although snowmobile racing is nothing new to Vilas County, where the snowmobile was invented, Eagle River is where Wisconsin first caught the sports world’s eye as a beacon for competitive recreational snowmobiling.