Wisconsin Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

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

—Dave Dudley is known as the father of truck-driving country music with hits such as “Six Days on the Road,” “Truck Drivin’ Son-of-a-Gun” and “There Ain’t No Easy Run.” He was born in 1928 in Spencer (pop. 1,341) and died in 2003.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

—A memorial to soul singer Otis Redding, best remembered for his soulful song “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” is placed on Monona Terrace in Madison near Lake Monona where Redding died in a plane crash in 1967.

first appeared: 1/27/2008

—Thirteen siblings in the Weisse family in Oshkosh ran together and completed the Community First Fox Cities Marathon in September and set a world record for the largest number of siblings to compete in and finish a marathon together.

first appeared: 1/13/2008

—Cheese carver Troy Landwehr of Little Chute (pop. 10,476) in June turned a 700-pound block of cheddar cheese into a replica of Mount Rushmore with the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

first appeared: 12/30/2007

—The University of Wisconsin at Madison owns the only double keyboard piano made by Steinway & Sons. Built in the 1920s, the instrument’s lower keyboard contains 88 keys like a typical piano, while the upper keyboard has 76 keys that are tuned one octave higher than corresponding keys on the lower keyboard. A single hand positioned diagonally can play chords that extend over two octaves.

first appeared: 12/2/2007

—The world’s first church built for worship services for Christian Scientists was constructed in 1886 in Oconto (pop. 4,708) by residents who studied under Mary Baker Eddy. Eddy wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and founded The First Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879 in Boston.

first appeared: 11/18/2007

—Middleton (pop. 15,770) is the “Best Place to Live” in America in 2007, according to Money magazine, which praised its small-town charm, booming economy, and extensive parks and bike trails.

first appeared: 11/4/2007

—In 1898, B.J. Johnson Soap Co. in Milwaukee created a soap from palm and olive oils and called it Palmolive. The soap was so successful that the company changed its name to Palmolive in 1917.

first appeared: 10/21/2007

—On the endangered species list since 1967, Kirtland’s warblers are making a comeback in the Badger State. Three nests were spotted earlier this year in young jack pine forests, the rare songbird’s preferred habitat for nesting.

first appeared: 10/7/2007

—Built in 1868 and rebuilt in the 1920s on Coon Creek near Beloit (pop. 35,775), Beckman Mill has been restored and grinds grain on weekends from May through October.

first appeared: 9/30/2007

—The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl I on Jan. 15, 1967, beating the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Each Packer received $15,000 and each Chief received $7,500, the largest single-game shares in the history of team sports at that time.

first appeared: 9/9/2007

—One of the famous 25 Big Boy steam engines—Number 4017—built by Union Pacific from 1941 to 1944 is permanently parked at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. The massive 132-foot-long locomotives weighed 1.2 million pounds and were built to pull a 3,600-ton train. Because of their great length, the frames of the Big Boys were “hinged,” or articulated, to allow them to negotiate curves.

first appeared: 8/26/2007

—The first issue of Sports Illustrated, dated Aug. 16, 1954, pictured Milwaukee Braves’ Eddie Mathews, the New York Giants’ Wes Westrum and umpire Augie Donatelli at Milwaukee’s County Stadium.

first appeared: 8/19/2007

—The nation’s largest organic farmer cooperative is Organic Valley Farms, headquartered in La Farge (pop. 775). Since its founding in 1988 by seven family farmers, Organic Valley has grown to more than 1,100 farm families across America that produce fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products without synthetic chemicals

first appeared: 8/12/2007

—Gourmet jellybeans have been produced since 1976 by the Jelly Belly Candy Co., which has a warehouse and distribution center at Jelly Belly Center in Pleasant Prairie (pop. 16,136). The company created blueberry-flavored jellybeans for the 1981 inauguration of President Ronald Reagan so he could serve his favorite candy in bunches of red, white and blue.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

—Fred MacMurray (1908-91), who graduated from Beaver Dam (pop. 15,169) High School, starred in the TV series My Three Sons and in numerous films, including The Absent-Minded Professor.

first appeared: 7/1/2007

—The Conservation Carousel took its first spin last year at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. Many of the 36 hand-carved animals represent species that are threatened or endangered.

first appeared: 6/17/2007

—James Wilberg, 15, of Franklin (pop. 29,494), was named the 2006 World Champion Liar by the Burlington (pop. 9,936) Liars Club. Wilberg’s whopper: “There are three kinds of people in the world. Those who are good at math, and those who aren’t.”

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—Saddened after seeing bald cancer patients, 10-year-old Anthony Leanna of Suamico (pop. 8,686) began providing hats to people undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Now 16, Leanna directs his Heavenly Hats Foundation, which sends more than 3,000 hats a month to hairless patients.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—In Lake Tomahawk (pop. 1,160), a familiar sound each summer is the crack of the bat and the flap-flap of snowshoes as the hitter runs to first base. Since 1961, the town has played the quirky game and calls itself the “Snowshoe Baseball Capital.”

first appeared: 5/6/2007

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