Virgin forests blotted out the sky over Wisconsin when the first French voyageurs arrived more than three centuries ago. Rich in natural resources, modern conservation concepts took strong root here; Wisconsin's 15,000 lakes and 2,200 streams are teeming with fish, and millions of acres of its publicly owned forest are abundant with game.

People of many heritages have contributed to the state's colorful past, busy industries, and productive farms. Wisconsin is famous for the breweries of Milwaukee, great universities, forests, paper mills, dairy products, and diverse vacation attractions.

Wisconsin is the birthplace of the statewide primary election law, worker's compensation law, unemployment compensation, and many other reforms that have since been widely adopted. It produced Senator Robert M. La Follette, one of the 20th century's foremost progressives, and many other honored citizens.

The Badger State acquired its nickname during the lead rush of 1827, when miners built their homes by digging into the hillsides like badgers. It is "America's dairyland," producing much of the nation's milk and over 30 percent of all cheese consumed in the United States. It is a leader in the production of hay, cranberries, and ginseng, and harvests huge crops of peas, beans, carrots, corn, and oats. It is the leading canner of fresh vegetables and an important source of cherries, apples, maple syrup, and wood pulp. A great part of the nation's paper products, agricultural implements, and nonferrous metal products and alloys are manufactured here.

The Wisconsin summer is balmy, and the winter offers an abundance of activities, making the state a year-round vacationland that lures millions of visitors annually. They find a land of many contrasts: rounded hills and narrow valleys to the southwest, a huge central plain, rolling prairie in the southeast, and the north, majestic with forests, marshes, and lakes.

Native Americans called this land Ouisconsin ("where the waters gather"). French explorer Jean Nicolet, seeking the Northwest Passage to the Orient, landed near Green Bay in 1634 and greeted what he thought were Asians. These Winnebago made a treaty of alliance with the French, and for the next 125 years a brisk trade in furs developed. The British won Wisconsin from the French in 1760 and lost it to the United States after the American Revolution.

Shortly before Wisconsin became a state it was a battleground in the Black Hawk War. After the campaign, word spread of the state's beauty and fertile land in the East, and opened the doors to a flood of settlers.

The rich lead mines brought another wave of settlers, and the forests attracted lumbermen--both groups remained to till the soil or work in the factories.

Diversified industry, enhanced recreational facilities, the trade opportunities opened by the St. Lawrence Seaway, and enlightened agricultural techniques promise continuing prosperity for Wisconsin.