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Wisconsin Facts And Trivia

Wisconsin Facts

We have listed here some Wisconsin State Facts and Trivia. Check back often as we are always adding little facts and trivia to this page.

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Wisconsin State Facts and Trivia

  • On May 29, 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state in the Union.
  • In 1634 Jean Nicolet, a French explore landed in Green Bay becoming the first European to visit Wisconsin.
  • The July 2022 Estimate for Wisconsin's population was 5,895908
  • Wisconsin's total land area is 34,660,994 acres
  • Wisconsin has 15,074 inland lakes totalling 982,574 acres.
  • Lake Winnebago is Wisconsin's largest lake at 131,939 acres.
  • Wisconsin's deepest lake is Green Lake with a depth of 236 feet.
  • Winnebago County has the most Inland lake acreage with 169,755 acres.
  • The Wisconsin County with the most Inland lakes is Vilas County with 1,318 lakes. Green County has the fewest with only 5 lakes.
  • Wisconsin was the first state in the United States to set standards for water wells.
  • Wisconsin's highest point is Timms Hill in Price County with an elevation of 1,951.5 feet above sea level.
  • Wisconsin's lowest point is Lake Michigan at averaging 579 feet above sea level.
  • The lowest temperature ever recorded in Wisconsin was -54 F. on January 24, 1922 at Danbury in Burnette County.
  • The first self-propelled highway vehicle in the United States was the Spark, a steam-powered buggy built in Racine in 1871 by John Carhart, honored at the 1908 Paris International Automobile Exposition as the "Father of Automobiles.".
  • The first vehicle race was held in Wisconsin in 1878 and ran from Green Bay to Madison through Janesville. The winner won $5,000 from the Wisconsin legislature.
  • The snowmobile was invented in Vilas County by Carl Eliason in the mid 1920's. He Patented his invention in 1927.
  • The only US President to have a summer White House in Wisconsin was President Calvin Coolidge. He spent the summer of 1928 in the Superior area.
  • July is Wisconsin's hottest month with the record high of 114 F. set in Wisconsin Dells on July 13, 1936.
  • The Ice Cream Sundae was invented one summer day in 1881 in Two Rivers when George Hallaver went into Edward Berner's ice cream parlor and asked to have chocolate sauce put on top of his dish of ice cream.
  • The outboard motor was invented by Ole Evinrude in 1909 because it took him too long to row his purchased ice cream out to the picnic site and it all melted.
  • America's first kindergarten was started in Watertown in 1856 by Margarethe Schurz.
  • The first house to be wired for electricity in the United States was in Appleton.
  • The highest waterfall in Wisconsin is the 165 foot Big Manitou Falls in Pattison State Park near Superior. It is also the fourth highest waterfall east of the Rockies.
  • The oldest continually operating radio station in the world is WHA in Madison. It began in 1917.
  • The worlds first electric trolley began to operated in Appleton in 1886.
  • The oldest college in Wisconsin is Carroll College. They started in 1846.
  • Wisconsin was the first state to assign highway numbers in 1917.
  • As of 2012, there were 69,754 farms in Wisconsin. Dane County had the most with 2,749 farms. Menominee County has the fewest farms with only 5 farms.
  • In 2012, the average acre of farm land was worth $4,482.
  • The first Wisconsin State Fair was October 1-2, 1851 and was in Janesville.
  • More than 100 circuses got their start in Wisconsin before 1938.
  • In 1870 there were 1,228 US Post Offices in Wisconsin for only one million people. They were located in many different places including hotels, private homes and saloons (very convenient). Wisconsin Free Rural Mail Delivery was first started in 1896.
  • In the early 1900s, Milwaukee had issued licenses to 2,440 taverns. They also licensed 6,767 bartenders and 2,630 pinball machines.
  • Wisconsin is slightly larger than England. Wisconsin has a total 34,660,994 acres total land area. England has 32,192,642 acres total land area.

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Updated: July 29, 2022 - Designed & Built in Wisconsin!

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Born: April 13, 1995 - Reborn: September 1, 2017
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