This section is from the book "Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World", by David Patrick. Also available from Amazon: Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World.
Wiscon'sin, one of the United States, lies between Lakes Michigan and Superior and the Mississippi River, with its tributary the St Croix; the surrounding states are Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Its length is about 300 miles and its breadth 250, with an area of 56,040 sq. m. The surface is a rolling plain with an elevation of 600 feet, rising to 1800 feet at the divide, about 30 miles south of Lake Superior. The general slope is south-westward towards the Mississippi, to which flow four-fifths of the streams - the Wisconsin (600 miles), Chippewa, Black, etc. There are two thousand small lakes, the largest, Winnebago (28 x 10 miles). Dense forests once covered most of the state, though the southern part is prairie land. The chief industry is agriculture, employing 400,000 persons. Dairying is rapidly progressing, and lumbering, the manufacture of leather, foundry and machine-shop products, flour, malt liquors, and slaughtering and meat-packing are great industries. The state suffered from destructive forest fires in 1871 and 1894; in the former 1000 lives were lost. The University of Wisconsin is in Madison, the state capital; the chief commercial city is Milwaukee (285,315). Artificial earth-mounds are the earliest human traces. In 1665 a Jesuit mission was founded on Green Bay, and French fur-traders soon established trading-posts. Upon the conquest of Canada in 1763 Wisconsin passed under British control, which lasted practically till 1815. Wisconsin Territory, when formed in 1836, extended to the Dakotas; but in 1838 the Mississippi was made its western boundary. In 1848 it was admitted as a state. Pop. (1850) 305,391; (1880) 1,315,477; (1900) 2,069,042 (largely of German and Scandinavian descent), besides 7649 tribal Indians.
 
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