Wisconsin

A river through a red place

Wisconsin is named for the Wisconsin River, and the name goes back to a Miami word for that river. Father Jacques Marquette wrote it down as Meskousing in June 1673, after Miami guides led him and Louis Joliet to the river. The explorer La Salle misread Marquette’s handwritten “M” as “Ou,” so Ouisconsin was the usual spelling for about 150 years, until US government records began using “Wisconsin” around 1830. Over the years writers proposed many meanings, among them “gathering of waters” and “red stone river.” The Wisconsin Historical Society now accepts the linguist Michael McCafferty’s 2003 reading, “river running through a red place,” probably a reference to the red sandstone bluffs of the Wisconsin Dells.

Territory and state

Wisconsin Territory was organized on July 4, 1836, and Congress admitted Wisconsin as the 30th state on May 29, 1848. The state’s motto, “Forward,” dates from 1851, and the coat of arms of 1881 sums up the young state’s economy: a plow for farming, a pick and shovel for mining, an arm with a hammer for manufacturing and an anchor for navigation, with a badger on top.

A capital on paper

The first territorial legislature met at Belmont in 1836 and fought a long battle over where to put the permanent capital. It chose Madison, a town that existed only as a plat on paper between two of the Four Lakes, largely through the lobbying of James Duane Doty, a former federal judge who had a land interest in the site. The town was named for President James Madison, and the legislature first met there in 1838. Today’s Capitol, built one wing at a time after a 1904 fire, is topped by a gilded statue called “Wisconsin.” The capital page tells the story.

Badgers and dairyland

Wisconsin’s nickname comes from the lead-mining boom of the late 1820s in the southwest of the state, when miners sheltered in old shafts and dugouts like badgers. The label later became a point of pride, and the badger has been the state animal since 1957. “America’s Dairyland” has been on state license plates since 1939, and the state’s symbols reflect it: the dairy cow is the state domestic animal, milk the state beverage and cheese the state dairy product.

Robins, violets and maples

Wisconsin has 29 official state symbols, and schoolchildren chose the first three by vote long before they became law. The American robin is the state bird, the wood violet the state flower and the sugar maple the state tree, all made official in 1949. The muskellunge is the state fish, the American water spaniel, the only breed said to be native to Wisconsin, the state dog, and the polka the state dance. The cranberry, of which Wisconsin is the top producer, is the state fruit, and the kringle the state pastry. The blue state flag carries the coat of arms above the year of statehood. See every symbol on the Wisconsin symbols page.

Land and people

Wisconsin covers 65,496 square miles, 23rd among the states, including more than 11,000 square miles of water, much of it in the Great Lakes. It had about 5.97 million residents in 2025, 21st in the country. It borders Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. Milwaukee, with about 562,000 people, is the largest city, followed by Madison with about 286,000, Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine.