Wisconsin is a constituent state of the United States of America. One of the north-central states, it is situated between Lake Michigan to the east and the upper Mississippi River to the west. On the north it touches the western portion of Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Minnesota and Iowa lie to the west and southwest, respectively, and to the south is Illinois. The area is 56,153 square miles (145,436 square km). The name Wisconsin is an anglicized version of a French rendering of an Indian name said to mean ''the place where we live.'' The state became the 30th member of the Union on May 29, 1848. That same year Madison, the territorial capital from 1836, became the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin.
The economy of Wisconsin is diversified, with individual elements spread generally throughout the state, though its three major facets have specific regions of concentration. Its southeastern industrial belt—extending across the state line along Lake Michigan from the Chicago area to and beyond Milwaukee, the state's largest city—is the primary factor in making Wisconsin one of the largest manufacturing states in the nation. In the southern two-thirds of the state, a combination of favourable physical factors of climate, soil, and topography makes possible a dairy agriculture that allows Wisconsin to be first in the nation in the production of milk, cheese, and butter. The sparsely settled, northern evergreen–hardwood forest and lake country hosts tourist and recreational activity.
The sparsely settled expanses of northern and western Wisconsin are popular areas. Among the more interesting vacation areas is the Door Peninsula, between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, with miles of rocky shoreline and sandy beaches and five state parks. It is largely forested but has cherry and apple orchards, summer cottages, small coastal villages, arts-and-crafts shops, and a summer theatre. Another is sparsely settled, heavily forested northern Wisconsin. With clear streams and hundreds of lakes, it is the epitome of the Northwoods for outdoors recreation. The Wisconsin Dells in the Central Plain is a mecca for tourists. Its initial attraction was the rocky canyons cut by the Wisconsin River, to which have been added many amusement park features. One of the least-heralded areas of the state but one deserving more attention is the scenic hill-and-valley country of the Western Upland, with its steep, wooded slopes, bare rock bluffs and towers, and tree-lined back roads winding through quiet pastoral scenes that include preserved homes of Cornish lead miners and a renowned summer Shakespearean theatre—an area described as being like an unofficial national park.
Professional athletic teams in the state include the Green Bay Packers (American football), the Milwaukee Brewers (baseball), and the Milwaukee Bucks (basketball). In addition there are several minor-league baseball teams and collegiate teams of various schools, including the Big Ten Conference teams of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The major producers of income in Wisconsin are manufacturing and processing, wholesale and retail trade, services (covering much of tourism), government, and construction. Manufacturing is concerned mainly with the production of metal goods and with the processing of agricultural and forest products. Agriculture is largely dairy farming, which requires a high degree of skill and efficiency. About four-fifths of farm incomes is derived from livestock and livestock products, three-fifths from dairy products alone. Among the features of Wisconsin highways and communities are stores specializing in cheeses of all kinds, wide varieties of wurst (sausage), and similar products, many of them manufactured locally. In addition, Wisconsin is one of the major beer-producing—and consuming—states in the nation, a reflection of its strong German heritage.
Tourism emerged in the mid-20th century and now ranks with manufacturing and agriculture as one of the major economic enterprises. It is promoted by the Division of Tourism Development through information centres in seven entry cities and Chicago and by the issuance of periodicals, brochures, films, and slides. Available for recreational use are some 117,000 acres in state parks and millions of acres in national, state, and county forests. Most of the public forests are in the north, with most of the parks in the southeast near the population concentrations, although there is a park within an hour's drive of any location.
Transportation route patterns concentrate toward the southeast, with Milwaukee and Chicago as the focal points, reflecting the greater population density and industrial concentration of that area. Intercity bus service is widespread, and the larger cities have intracity service. Two interstate highways cross the state. Wisconsin ports handle more than one-fourth of the domestic freight tonnage on the Great Lakes; the largest are Duluth (Minnesota)-Superior, Milwaukee, and Green Bay. Madison, Milwaukee, and several smaller cities are served by major airlines; regional and commuter lines provide service to outlying areas.
