The early French traders and explorers who came to the upper lakes
naturally ascended their affluents, and in this way La Salle, Joliet,
Hennepin and others crossed the portages beyond Lake Michigan to the
tributaries of the Mississippi. They came to Green Bay on the west
side of Lake Michigan, ascended the Fox River and crossed over to the
Wisconsin River. Southward from the Upper Michigan Peninsula and
westward of the lower peninsula of that State spreads the broad
expanse of Lake Michigan, stretching from Mackinac and Green Bay down
to Chicago. Its western shore is the State of Wisconsin, extending
northward to Lake Superior. When the French explorers came along and
floated down its chief river, an affluent of the Mississippi, the
latter making the western boundary of the State, they found the Indian
name of the stream to be a word which, according to the pronunciation,
they spelled in their early narratives "Ouisconsing" and "Misconsin,"
and it finally came out in the present form of Wisconsin, thus naming
the State. The original meaning was the "wild, rushing red water,"
from the hue given by the pine and tamarack forests. La Salle coasted
in his canoe all along the western shore of Lake Michigan, from Green
Bay down to Chicago, and crossed over to the Mississippi. The traders
established various settlements on that shore which have grown into
active cities, and the principal one, eighty-five miles north of
Chicago, is Milwaukee, its name derived from the Indian Mannawahkie,
meaning the "good land." A broad harbor, indented several miles from
the lake, was the nucleus of the city, at the mouth of Milwaukee
River, which receives two tributaries within the town, and thus adds
to the facilities for dockage, while extensive breakwaters protect the
harbor entrance from lake storms.
Milwaukee has three hundred and fifty thousand people, and is the
growth mainly of the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is
finely located, with undulating surface, the streets lined with trees,
and the splendid development of the residential section making it
almost like an extensive park, the foliage and garden spaces are so
extensive and attractive. Its population is largely German, and its
breweries are famous, exporting their product all over the country. It
has a grand Federal building, costing nearly $2,000,000, a Romanesque
structure in granite, an elaborate Court-house of brown sandstone, a
spacious City Hall, a magnificent Public Library and Museum, and many
attractive churches and other edifices. Juneau Park, on a bluff
overlooking the lake, commemorates the first settler, Solomon Juneau,
and contains his statue. Here, in compliment to the large Scandinavian
population of Wisconsin, is also a statue of Leif Ericsen, who is said
to have been in command of the first detachment of Norsemen who landed
in New England in the eleventh century. The Forest Home Cemetery at
the southwestern verge of the city is one of the most beautiful in the
country. Milwaukee is familiarly called the "Cream City" from the
light-colored brick made in the neighborhood, which so largely enter
into the construction of its buildings. It has extensive grain
elevators and flour mills and large manufacturing industries. To the
westward, in a park of four hundred acres, is the National Soldiers'
Home, with accommodation for twenty-four hundred. Its Sheridan Drive
along the lake shore southward is gradually extending, the intention
being to connect with the Sheridan Boulevard constructed northward
from Chicago. The lion of the city, however, is the great Pabst
Brewery, covering thirty-four acres and producing eight hundred
thousand barrels of beer a year. Twenty miles inland to the westward
is a favorite resort of the Milwaukeans, the noted Bethesda Spring of
Waukesha, whose waters they find it beneficial to take copiously,
large quantities being also exported throughout America and Europe for
their efficacy in diabetes and Bright's disease.
The capital of Wisconsin is the city of Madison, seventy-five miles
west of Milwaukee, built on the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and
Monona, thus giving it an admirable position. It has about twenty
thousand people, and the lake attractions make it a popular summer
resort. The State Capitol is a handsome building in a spacious park,
one of the wings being occupied by the Wisconsin Historical Society,
with a library of two hundred thousand volumes, an art gallery and
museum. The great structure of Madison is the University of Wisconsin,
the buildings in a commanding position on University Hill overlooking
the charming Lake Mendota. There are seventeen hundred students, and
its Washburn Observatory, one of the best in America, has wide fame.