Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State
This article originally appeared in Exchange,
a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical
Society. (Volume 32, Number 2, Spring 1990) It is
the 11th in a series of articles titled Researching
Community History. The series highlights
the Society's resources available to local
historians. It was written by Tom McKay,
retired local history coordinator for the
Wisconsin Historical Society.
Local historians can construct partial profiles of their communities' pasts by scanning lists and ledgers of business directories, census schedules, and other systematic records. Enriching these systematic profiles with the impressions, ideas, or attitudes about a community as recorded by residents or visitors immerses local historians in very different kinds of records. Diaries or collections of personal papers may paint very detailed and elaborate pictures of a community's history. Other sources, such as travel guides, offer only quick verbal snapshots of a community at a point in time. During the 1930s, workers in the Writers Program of the federal government's Work Projects Administration recorded data and impressions about a large number of Wisconsin communities for a guide that may provide surprising bits and pieces of information to local historians. The Wisconsin Library Association sponsored publication of Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State , one volume in the American Guide Series. In the Wisconsin guide, researchers will find quick impressions or miscellaneous notes for more than 350 communities and localities.
As one of its many Depression-era employment programs, the federal
government hired out-of-work writers to travel to individual states
and compose entries for a publishable guidebook. A number of writers
worked on each guidebook and authorship of specific sections of the
guidebooks is not identified. The resulting volumes blended history,
scenic descriptions, local lore, and contemporary statistical data
into an impressionistic overview of the state. The Wisconsin guidebook
consists of three parts. Part I is a topical examination of the state
as a whole. The eighteen brief chapters in this part of the guide
cover topics ranging from agriculture to education to industry to
the theater. The preface to the guide acknowledges the advice and
assistance received from a long list of Wisconsin's best known scholars.
However, the guide does not name the authors of the eighteen chapters,
and the reader cannot presume that the writers were experts on their
subjects. In general, the chapter makes an honest effort at condensing
information available in a more complete form in other books and secondary
sources. For the topics addressed in Part I, the local historian can
find other and better sources.
In Part II, Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State profiles
nine of the largest cities in the state. Listed in order of presentation,
Green Bay, Kenosha, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Racine,
Sheboygan and Superior appear. Each profile begins with a compendium
of information about local public services and accommodations. The
data includes locations of railroad and bus stations; fares for city
buses, trolleys, and taxis; special traffic regulations; airport locations
and scheduled airline services; radio stations; swimming, tennis,
and golf facilities; numbers of hotels and movie houses; and more.
Each of the cities has a brief historical sketch followed by a description
of points of interest. Although these brief descriptions often lack
detail, tucked within them the researcher may find forgotten bits
and pieces of the community's past. For example, the city of Sheboygan
operated a summer "Kiddies Camp" for undernourished children in Evergreen
Park. The Madison section even contains a brief mention of the subjects
of the exhibits in the State Historical Society's museum.
Automobile tours comprise Part III of Wisconsin: A Guide to the
Badger State . Each of the 24 tours in this part of the guidebook
follows a state or U.S. highway. The tour writers
describe scenic views, sites connected with history or lore, and
the appearances of cities and villages along the route. For each
municipality visited, the guidebook lists the population and the
altitude above sea level.
The tours meander through virtually every section of the state with comments about thousands of sites and hundreds of communities along the way. The longest tour runs 348 miles on State Highway 35 from Superior to Prairie du Chien. The shortest covers 11 miles from Sturgeon Bay to the Washington Island ferry.
As in the city descriptions, the guidebook's automobile tours contain bits and pieces of information possibly long forgotten by local residents. For example, the guidebook describes the carp ponds in Stockholm that supplied live fish to kosher markets in larger cities. This business might be all but forgotten by historians in Pepin County. Many people may remember that John Dillinger, Sr. operated a small gangster museum at Little Bohemia near Manitowish. However, the guidebook also records the museum's 25 cent admission and the large red billboard that marked its entrance. Part III of the guidebook can prove particularly useful to county historical societies because it captures quick impressions of sites and communities in several sections of most counties.
Some local historians will find Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger
State in their public library. The Wisconsin Historical Society
has four circulating copies in its library collection,
and the volume may be borrowed through interlibrary
loan. While the guide may not provide the foundation for a systematic
study, local historians may find between its covers
forgotten details and bits of data that can enrich
exhibits, publications, or programs about community
life at the end of the Depression era.
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