Recreation and Places of Interest

Wisconsin’s many fine recreational facilities and beautiful scenery are enjoyed by thousands of vacationers and outdoor enthusiasts each year. Numerous state forests and parks exist throughout the state, with lakes for water sports and campgrounds, picnic sites, and nature trails. In addition, there are streams, rivers and the Great Lakes for fishing, as well as numerous state canoe trails. Wisconsin’s abundant wildlife provides hunting enthusiasts with a wide variety of game. Numerous places of historical interest throughout the state are noted by official state markers.

National Parks and Forests

The National Park Service administers two areas in Wisconsin. Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a recreational area comprising islands and the nearby Bayfield Peninsula on Lake Superior. Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway encompasses 406 km (252 mi) of the Saint Croix and Namekagon rivers.

The two national forests in Wisconsin, both in the northern part of the state, include a number of recreation areas with facilities for riding, hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and nature study. Chequamegon National Forest is the larger of the two. Nicolet National Forest is named for the 17th-century French explorer Jean Nicolet.

State Parks and Forests

Most of Wisconsin’s ten state forests have facilities for camping, water sports, picnicking, and hunting. The largest, Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, covers about 89,000 hectares (about 222,000 acres) of natural area in northern Wisconsin. It includes a tract crossed by the Wisconsin River and popular for summer vacationing. Kettle Moraine State Forest, consisting of two separate units, is characterized by glacial features known as kettles, which are depressions caused by the melting of buried blocks of ice in the till deposited by glaciers.

Peninsula State Park, one of the largest of the 47 state parks and recreation areas in Wisconsin, encompasses a forested headland in Green Bay. In the center of Door Peninsula, along Sturgeon Bay, lies Potawatomi State Park. The park’s wooded shoreline rises gradually to high bluffs from which there are beautiful views of the area. There are also magnificent views from Rib Mountain State Park, one of the highest points in the state.

Pattison State Park features Big Manitou Falls, where the Black River makes a steep plunge. Interstate Park lies on the Saint Croix River on the western border of the state. The oldest of Wisconsin’s state parks, it is noted for its river gorge and rocky bluffs. The Baraboo Range of south central Wisconsin is the site of Devils Lake State Park. Kohler-Andrae State Park, south of Sheboygan, includes a wide sandy beach on Lake Michigan with beautiful sand dunes and white pine woods. Point Beach State Forest also lies on Lake Michigan.

There are several state monuments of historic interest in Wisconsin. First Capitol State Park, near Belmont, contains the restored building in which the legislature of the territory of Wisconsin met in 1836. Another point of interest is the schoolhouse in Ripon where the meeting was held in 1854 that launched the Republican Party. Villa Louis, near Prairie du Chien, is a mansion built in 1843 and maintained by the State Historical Society. Aztalan State Park, east of Madison, preserves a prehistoric Native American village that has been partially reconstructed, together with a number of burial mounds.

Sports and Recreation

Hiking, camping, swimming, boating, golfing, hunting, and fishing are among Wisconsin’s foremost outdoor recreational activities. In winter, skating, skiing, snowmobiling, and tobogganing are popular sports. Wisconsin is the home of several professional sports teams. The Green Bay Packers are a well-known professional football team, and the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame contains displays relating to the team. Milwaukee is the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, a major-league baseball team, and the Milwaukee Bucks, a professional basketball team. The National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame is in Hayward.

Museums

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin owns and operates the State Historical Museum in Madison, which interprets Wisconsin’s past from prehistory to the present. The society also maintains several historic sites, including Stonefield, a museum complex near Cassville that depicts 1890s rural and village life; the Circus World Museum, in Baraboo, which was the original winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus; and Old World Wisconsin, an open-air museum of architecture and culture in Eagle that mirrors the state’s diverse ethnic history. Fine-arts museums include the Wright Museum of Art, at Beloit College; the Paine Art Center and Arboretum, in Oshkosh; and the Milwaukee Art Museum, which is housed in the well-known War Memorial Center. The Milwaukee Public Museum is a natural and cultural history museum that features walk-through exhibits including a live-butterfly garden, a modern Native American powwow, and an authentic rainforest. Noted special museums include the Prairie du Chien Museum at Fort Crawford; the Rhinelander Logging Museum, where exhibits are housed in a replica of an old-time logging camp; the National Railroad Museum, in Green Bay; and the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Airventure Museum, in Oshkosh.

Other Places to Visit

Among the state’s many historic homes is the Tank Cottage, in Green Bay, the oldest house existing in the state. In Portage is the restored surgeon’s quarters of old Fort Winnebago. The only remaining building of the fort, it contains a collection of medical books, historic documents, and other items relating to the fort’s history. The Milton House, in Milton, is a poured concrete building constructed on a hexagonal plan. Dating from 1844, the building was a stagecoach stop, and it also served as a station of the Underground Railroad for escaping slaves. Mineral Point has a street of restored houses used by Cornish miners during the early days of the state’s lead mining industry.

Taliesin, in Spring Green, was the home of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Another of his well-known buildings is the Johnson Wax Building, in Racine. One of the most popular places to visit in the state is Wisconsin Dells, where the Wisconsin River passes through a winding gorge about 13 km (8 mi) long.

Source: MSN Encarta: Online Encyclopedia