Turning Points Topic List

Prehistory & Native Peoples

• Effigy Mounds Culture
• First Peoples
• Iroquois Wars of the 17th Century
• Mississippian Culture and Aztalan
• The Physical Geography of Wisconsin

Early Explorers, Traders & Settlers

• Arrival of the First Europeans
• Colonialism Transforms Indian Life
• The French Fur Trade
• The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
• The War of 1812

Territory to Statehood

• The Black Hawk War
• The Creation of Wisconsin Territory
• Early U.S. Settlement
• The State Constitutions of 1846 and 1848
• Treaty Councils, from Prairie du Chien to Madeline

Immigration & Settlement

• Development of the Railroads
• 19th-Century Immigration
• The Founding of Major Cities
• The Founding of Social Institutions
• Great Lakes Steamships and Canals

Civil War Era

• Abolition and Other Reforms
• The Civil War Home Front
• The Iron Brigade, Old Abe and Military Affairs
• Wisconsin and the Republican Party

Mining, Lumber & Agriculture

• Mining in Northern Wisconsin
• Lead Mining in Southwestern Wisconsin
• Lumbering and Forest Products
• The Rise of Dairy Farming
• Wild Rice Harvesting

Progressive Era

• Americanization and the Bennett Law
• The Birth of the Labor Movement
• The Career of Robert M. LaFollette
• Progressivism and the Wisconsin Idea
• Travel and Tourism
• The Conservation Movement
• The Woman’s Suffrage Movement

20th -c Wars & Conflicts

• Korea and the Cold War
• Vietnam and Opposition at Home
• World War I, at home and in the trenches
• The World War II Military and Home Fronts

Prosperity, Depression, Industrialization & Urbanization

• Depression and Unemployment
• The Introduction of Electrical Power
• Milwaukee Sewer Socialism
• Automobile Culture
• The Rise of Skilled Manufacturing
• Brewing and Prohibition

Response to 20th -c. Change

• 20th Century Immigration
• American Indian Sovereignty
• Desegregation and Civil Rights
• The Modern Environmental Movement
• Post-war African-American Migration
• The Rise of Professional Sports