August 2006 Odd Wisconsin
Thomas G. Anderson (1779-1875) was a fur-trader in northwestern Wisconsin in the opening years of the 19th century. He spent the winter of 1811-1812 60 miles from his nearest neighbor, and when the spring thaw came about March 20th, he headed south to Prairie du Chien. From there he turned...
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Posted in Animals on August 31, 2006
In recent years, cougar reports have proliferated in Wisconsin -- as many as 75 were said to have been spotted in 2005, though none of these sightings were confirmed. Wisconsin's own subspecies, Puma concolor schorgeri, is thought to have been extinct for nearly a century. John H. Fonda, of Prairie...
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Posted in Animals on August 28, 2006
Twenty years after the Panic of 1837 (described in the previous entry), Wisconsin suffered again when the nation plunged into another depression. The economy had boomed for a decade. Railroads extended their reach all across the nation, cutting the cost and time required to move people and goods. The...
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Posted in Curiosities on August 23, 2006
No, not the band -- the economy. We like to imagine the frontier as a booming period of spectacular growth, but 170 years ago this week Wisconsin was tumbling into an economic depression second only to that of the 1930s. Between 1837 and 1842 nearly half the banks in the...
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Posted in Curiosities on August 20, 2006
Sun Prairie's annual Sweet Corn Festival happens this weekend, the modern manifestation of an ancient ritual that marks the seasonal return of abundant food supplies. The annual planting of corn, rising of shoots, budding of ears, and beginning of harvest have marked the calendar for Wisconsin peoples for more than...
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Posted in Curiosities on August 17, 2006
The desire to claim distinction seems to be part of human nature. Right here in Wisconsin, the Manitowoc Co. city of Two Rivers has long claimed to be the birthplace of the ice cream sundae, citing local oral tradition of its invention there in Berner's Ice Cream Parlor in 1881....
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Posted in Curiosities on August 13, 2006
This week a visitor from out of state requested a tour of Aztalan, our state's best known and largest archaeological site. Driving back after a delightful summer afternoon on the ancient hillside, he asked where the name originated. This opened the door to a bizarre series of explanations on the...
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Posted in Curiosities on August 10, 2006
The source for today's Odd Wisconsin is a New York Times reporter who claimed (Dec. 7, 1902) only to "relate the tale as the Nashotah people tell it, and the reader can draw his own conclusions." The Nashotah Theological Seminary in Waukesha Co. was founded by Rev. James Lloyd Breck...
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Posted in Bizarre Events on August 6, 2006
In the summer of 1834, Rev. Cutting Marsh of Kaukauna journeyed across Wisconsin into Iowa, keeping a daily diary as he went. On the Mississippi he heard about the recent death of "a very wicked man" named Nadeau, whose fate was worthy of a story by Edgar Allan Poe: "It...
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Posted in Strange Deaths on August 2, 2006
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