Welcome to Wisconsin
Buddy posing at the corner stone of my kin's homestead barn
Table of contents
Page:
1Elkhart Lake Kettle Moraine http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771
2 Heart of Luxembourg Tour & West Bend http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=2
3 Cedarburg, Hamilton & Grafton http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=3
4 Lions Den, Port Washington & Flag Day School http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=4
5 Holy Hill & Germantown http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=5
6 Sheboygan http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=6
7 Manitowoc to Door County http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=7
8 Fond Du Lac, Horicon Marsh, Hartford Auto Museum http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=8
9 South/West Wisconsin
10 Churches & Farms http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=10
11 Washington County Fairgrounds, BMW Dealers, TWT, Crud Run & Pre-Rally Camp http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=11
12 West Bend's Art Museum & Indian Mound Park http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=12
13 Harley Davidson Tour, Kohler-Andrae State Park http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=13
14IFond du Lac, Green Lake, Waushara, and Waupaca Counties http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=14771&page=14
A brief Wisconsin history
Before 1830, Wisconsin was home to just Indians and a relative few settlers & southwest Wisconsin miners
1832 Black hawk War ends and the signing over of the Indians land
Mid 1830's opening of Land Settlement offices in Wisconsin
Mid 1830's nearly half of WisconsinÔÇÖs people were living in the southwest lead mining region, producing half of America's lead
Mid 1830, the opening of the Erie Canal. Travel for immigrants made easier,
traveling from US East coast port, Hudson River, Erie Canal, Great Lakes and on to Wisconsin.
Another immigrants port of entry was Quebec City, then Great Lakes to Wisconsin Harbors
1840-50 mass advertising & letters home in Northern Europe of settlement land in Wisconsin
1848 Wisconsin becomes a State
In 1857, the first east-west railroad from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi was complete.
Soon after, a line from Milwaukee to La Crosse opened, and other lines were extended north from Chicago.
1869 America's first transcontinental railroad is completed with a ceremony at Promontory, Utah.
Again travel for immigrants made easier
"largest concentration of 19th century old-world settlements in America is found along the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan
" -- Wisconsin's Ethnic Settlement Trail (W.E.S.T.)
Milwaukee evolved as port city.
Started out exporting leather & grain back east, then importing shoes & flour at a much higher expense.
Having a large amount of Iron just west of West Bend, Milwaukee decided to make their own finished products,
so they created industrial foundries and machine shops
to make the gears and tooling to grind the grains and make the shoes and so started the industries,
besides beer, that made Milwaukee famous.
Between 1840 & 1880,
400 families (including my relatives) of Luxembourg decent
settled 30 miles north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the Port Washington/Belgium area.
Making it the largest settlement of Luxembourgers in the Americas.
When I was a kid, I remember Luxembourg/German was spoken by many of the old timers.
http://www.luxamculturalsociety.org/cc_info.html
http://www.wisconsinhighways.org/maps/trunkline_map_overview.html
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