Wisconsin Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

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

Williams Bay (pop. 2,415) is home to Yerkes Observatory and the world’s largest refracting telescope, which has a 40-inch lens.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

Rockets and sprockets share the limelight at the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum in Sparta (pop. 8,648) where the main exhibit honors native son and astronaut Deke Slayton.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1972, was born in 1924 in Milwaukee and grew up in Shorewood (pop. 13,763).

first appeared: 6/20/2004

On Feb. 12, 1930, Jennie Kelleher of Madison became the first woman to bowl a perfect 300 game in a sanctioned contest.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

The state was the first to use airplanes for forest fire detection, beginning in 1915 when pilot Jack Vilas patrolled near Boulder Junction (pop. 958).

first appeared: 6/6/2004

Bill Meinel of Burlington (pop. 9,936) claims his wife changed her mind about paint colors so many times that their 1,800-square-foot house shrunk to 1,000 square feet. He won the 2003 World Champion Liar Contest, sponsored by the Burlington Liars Club.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

In 1917, the Wisconsin Chair Co. in Port Washington (pop. 10,467), maker of cabinets for Edison phonographs, began producing records to give with cabinets. On its Paramount label, the company recorded bluesmen Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Jelly Roll Morton and other notables.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

Crippled and unable to serve his Civil War duty, Dan McCann of Chippewa Falls (pop. 12,925) sent his pet eagle, Old Abe, because “someone from the family ought to go.” Through 42 skirmishes and battles, the eagle screamed encouragement to his regiment and lost only a few feathers. The hero bird was given to the state in 1864 and lived in the Capitol.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

Bernard Cigrand, the founder of Flag Day, was born in 1866 in Waubeka and is saluted in the town’s Americanism Center Museum.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Diners at Little Swiss Village near Minocqua (pop. 4,859) request the “Chester” table so they can watch Chester and other chipmunks untie peanuts from a wire. Chester also has performed on local television.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

The only chicken coop listed on the National Register of Historic Places is near Baraboo (pop. 10,711). It was used as a retreat in the 1930s by conservationist Aldo Leopold.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

Actress Ellen Corby, who played Grandma Esther Walton in the 1970s television series The Waltons, was born June 3, 1913, in Racine.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

King Camp Gillette, born Jan. 5, 1855, in Fond du Lac, patented a double-edged safety razor in 1904.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

Myron “Grim” Natwick, the first animator to draw Betty Boop, was born Aug. 16, 1890, in Wisconsin Rapids (pop. 18,435).

first appeared: 4/4/2004

Appleton is the site of what is believed to be the first commercial hydroelectric plant in the world, completed in 1882.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

Old World Wisconsin in Eagle (pop. 1,707) features farmsteads and settlements, representing Danish, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, and African-American pioneers, on nearly 600 acres of rolling hills.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

One of the state’s most visited attractions is the Wisconsin Dells, where the Wisconsin River passes through a winding, eight-mile gorge.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

Golda Meir (1898-1978), Israel’s first woman prime minister, was born in Russia but raised in Milwaukee. In 1921, she and her husband moved to Tel Aviv.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

The American Birkebeiner, a 52K cross-country ski race between Cable and Hayward, is the largest race of its kind on the North American continent.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

The Capitol in Madison is distinguished as being the only state capitol ever built on an isthmus. It was built between 1906 and 1917 for $7.25 million.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

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