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50@50 – Land of Cheese & Beer; WI

Think “Wisconsin” – what comes to mind? Yes, Beer and Cheese.

Travel Wisconsin, lists 25 cheese factories and 16 breweries that offer visits.  More exist, but some guard their operations more closely, I suppose. As a woman who carries the “beer” gene, I was obliged to conduct my research thoroughly!

The second, fifth, and seventh oldest operating breweries in the U.S. are located in Wisconsin – Minhas, Stephen’s Point, and Leinenkugel.[*] As in other parts of the country, Wisconsin Brewing began in the 1830s. By 1860, nearly 200 breweries operated in Wisconsin, and most towns had at least one operating brewery by the 1890s. Breweries were as much a part of communities as schools, livery stables, and shops. Keep in mind, this was before pasteurization. German immigrants who brought their knowledge and skills with them led the growth.

Wisconsin, the Milwaukee region in particular, possessed abundant natural resources including fresh water, lumber, and ice enabling the state to become a behemoth in the brewing industry. The National Brewery Museum is located southwest, in Potosi, near the Mississippi River. Local lore in Monroe, where I toured Minhas (also the location of the National Historic Cheesemaking Center), maintains that because the water table sits below a thick limestone layer, that the water is purer here, so the German and Swiss came to southern Wisconsin to make beer and cheese.[†]

During the 17th – 19th centuries, famine hit Europe in waves. Mountainous regions, lacking enough agricultural land to feed  inhabitants sufficiently, experienced significant emigration during the 19^th century. The Wisconsin Emigration Commission advertised in over 900 papers and several languages throughout Europe and in Eastern American and Canadian coastal cities. Local governments gave them a financial incentive (up to six month’s wages) to emigrate, on the condition they never return to Europe.[‡]Over 250,000 Swiss came to North America with large numbers settling in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri.  Today, out of the 15 largest Swiss-American Communities in the U.S. (% to population) seven are in Wisconsin. New Glarus is touted as the best preserved Swiss community in the United States.

Wheat was crop of choice for European settlers in the upper Midwest. A small initial capital investment and its ease of growth yielded a high rate of financial return. From 1840 to 1880, Wisconsin was considered “America’s breadbasket” because one-sixth of the wheat grown in the nation came from Wisconsin. But it’s hard on the soil, sensitive to weather and attractive to insects. Disaster struck in the 1860s, when tiny chinch bugs began devouring Wisconsin wheat crops.[§]

Traditionally, farm women were the ones who managed the dairy cows and created the cheese. By this time, kitchen chessemaking had become a cottage industry. In 1868, a Swiss cheesemaker – who had initially settled in New York – moved to New Glarus and established the first Cheese Factory. Transitioning traditional farmers to “women’s work” was not easy. In the 1880s, the University of Wisconsin even offered “short winter courses” to educate farmers on the benefits of dairying. As many as 200 cheese factories existed in southern Wisconsin’s Green County by the early 20^th century.

In addition to the multitude of hiking opportunities in its state parks, Wisconsin has 36 state trails. Connecting the town of New Glarus with Brodhead, another cheese factory town, is the Sugar River State Trail. An abandoned railroad line, it travels 24 miles; fourteen trestle bridges cross over the river and its tributaries. The upper portion, which I took, is the southern edge of the Ice Age Trail, so glacial topography can be seen as the trail passes by rolling hills, farmlands, woods, and scenic meadows.[**]

I look forward to coming back to walk the entire trail in the future. My diverse hikes here in Wisconsin have exceeded my expectations. It’s rather like finding Tuscany when you’re expecting the Alps. While existing cultures came to this land and imparted their imprints, the land and its gifts have most certainly shaped the culture over time. The people of the upper Midwest do not take this landscape for granted – they preserve it while maximizing protected access.  “I’ll be back”.