Wisconsin Trivia & Tidbits - Page 11

Looking for Wisconsin trivia? Try our list Wisconsin little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Established in 1900, Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls (pop. 2,033) is Wisconsin’s oldest state park.

first appeared: 5/11/2003

Opened in 1927, Washington Park Velodrome in Kenosha is the nation’s oldest operating velodrome, a banked track for bicycle races.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

Sixteen million acres or 46 percent of the state is forested.

first appeared: 4/27/2003

Luck (pop. 1,200) became known as the Yo-Yo Capital of the World after the Duncan Co. opened a manufacturing plant there in 1946, producing 3,600 yo-yos an hour.

first appeared: 4/20/2003

The 1859 Iowa County Courthouse in Dodgeville (pop. 4,220) is the state’s oldest active courthouse.

first appeared: 4/13/2003

Scott Mitchen of Ashland (pop. 8,620) salvages timber from Lake Superior that sank a century ago while awaiting sawing and sells the prized wood to craftsmen, such as violinmakers, who love the wood’s tight grain.

first appeared: 4/6/2003

At 17, Elaine Stiles took over as editor of The Spy newspaper in Kingston (pop. 900) after her father’s death in 1935. She made national headlines as the country’s “youngest girl newspaper editor.”

first appeared: 3/30/2003

The world’s largest stand of American chestnut trees is near West Salem (pop. 4,540) where 2,500 chestnut trees grow on 60 acres. A fungus discovered in 1904 felled most of the majestic trees—there, and across America.

first appeared: 3/23/2003

The Badger State is home to two popular game fish: the walleye and the Northern pike. A species called walleyed pike doesn’t exist, according to Dee Borcherding of McFarland (pop. 6,416), who is trying to eradicate the misnomer.

first appeared: 3/16/2003

The state’s longest ski run is 5,300 feet down Mount La Crosse in La Crosse.

first appeared: 3/9/2003

The 1905 Lafayette County Courthouse in Darlington (pop. 2,418) has the distinction of being financed by a single donor, Matthew Murphy, who bequeathed $129,000 for the building.

first appeared: 3/2/2003

Joseph Barta of Spooner (pop. 2,653) carved 100 life-size figures depicting the life of Christ, along with 400 miniatures. This largest collection by one carver is displayed at the Museum of Woodcarving in Shell Lake (pop. 1,309).

first appeared: 2/23/2003

Swimmers in the Polar Bear Club in Jacksonport (pop. 738) brrr-ave Lake Michigan every New Year’s Day.

first appeared: 2/16/2003

Margarethe Meyer Schurz (1833-1876) founded the nation’s first kindergarten in Watertown (pop. 21,598) in 1856. Five students were enrolled, and as with most early kindergartens in the United States, studies were conducted in German.

first appeared: 2/9/2003

Wisconsin was the first state to require that seat belts be installed in cars, beginning with 1962 models.

first appeared: 2/2/2003

Forty-six percent of the state’s 34.7 million acres are forested.

first appeared: 1/26/2003

Christened by Jesuit priests, Presque Isle (pop. 513), which means “almost an island” in French, was so named because of the vast stretches of lakes and rivers that dwarf the land.

first appeared: 1/19/2003

The Badger State has 112,362 miles of state and interstate highways, county roads, and city streets.

first appeared: 1/12/2003

SC Johnson, manufacturer of household cleaning products such as Pledge and Windex, was founded in Racine by Samuel Curtis Johnson, who started a parquet flooring company in 1886 and later developed a paste wax product to care for the floors.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

Archaeological evidence reveals people have lived on the land that is now Wisconsin for more than 12,000 years.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

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