50 Wisconsin Facts They Never Taught You In School

Source: Flickr user joelrivlin

1. Mount Horeb is full of trolls, but not the online hater kind. The town's main street, dubbed the “Trollway,” is lined with hand-carved wooden ones. 

2. Wisconsin is the only state to offer a Master Cheesemaker program. It takes three years to complete, and you need 10 years of cheese making experience before you can even apply as a candidate.

3. The cheesehead hat actually debuted at a Brewers, not a Packers, game. It was popularized by Brewers outfielder Rick Manning when a dugout photo of him wearing the now-iconic wedge appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

6. Wisconsin repealed its laws enforcing Prohibition in 1929, four years before the nation as a whole.

7. In fact, the 21st Amendment, which did away with Prohibition nationwide, was authored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine.

8. Schlitz, the “beer that made Milwaukee famous,” is now owned by the Los Angeles-based Pabst Brewing Company, which also produces Old Milwaukee.

9. The Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw Festival, held in Sauk City and Prairie du Sac, is the world's largest celebration of bovine fecal matter.

10. Barbie, the improbably-proportioned doll of a million career and wardrobe changes, comes from the (fictional) town of Willows, Wisconsin.

11. The “terrible towel” waved by Pittsburgh Steelers fans is actually manufactured by McArthur Towel and Sports of Baraboo.

12. The first-ever ice cream sundae was served (on a Sunday) in 1881 at Edward C. Berner's soda fountain in Two Rivers, and it only cost a nickel.

13. The University of Wisconsin-Madison fight song, “On Wisconsin!,” is also the state song, although the lyrics differ slightly.

15. This song was originally written about the state of Minnesota, but was later changed to be about its next-door neighbor,

16. The battle cry “On Wisconsin!” was first uttered at the Civil War Battle of Missionary Ridge by then-lieutenant Arthur MacArthur, Jr., whose future little boy Dougie would grow up to be five-star General Douglas MacArthur.

17. Confederate spy Belle Boyd, known as the “Secesh Cleopatra,” was a Virginian by birth and loyalty, but she's become a posthumous Unionist as she died and lies buried in Wisconsin Dells.

18. Door County takes its name from a dangerous sea passage where the waters of Green Bay join those of Lake Michigan—early French explorers named it the Porte des Morts, or Death's Door.

20. During the summertime, the population of Door County explodes, reaching almost 10 times the number of year-round residents.

21. The Wisconsin Dells has the world's largest concentration of water parks all in one area: eight indoor and three outdoor, with more than 200 water slides and 16 million gallons of water.

22. The Noah's Ark Waterpark in the Dells is the largest outdoor water park in the U.S.

23. Milwaukee's Summerfest attracts up to a million visitors per year, which has earned it a Guinness World Records citation as world's largest music festival.

25. Another monster critter, an enormous statue of a badger, once sat atop a Birnamwood gas station/gift store that was housed in his “log.” The badger's got a new gig now—he's welcoming patrons to see the nekkid ladies at the Northern EXposure Gentlemen’s Club.

26. The first kindergarten classes in the U.S. were held in 1856 at the home of a German couple residing in Watertown.

27. A sign that used to mark the Business 51 exit on southbound I-39 managed to misspell every single word except for “exit.” Rothschild came out as “Rothschield,” Schofield was “Schofeild,” and the sign makers even managed to mess up the word “business”—“Buisness”? Seriously? More like serouisly.

29. About 90 percent of the milk from Wisconsin cows is used to make cheese.

30. The National Freshwater Fishing Hall in Hayward is home to what is claimed to be the world's largest fiberglass sculpture, a four story high, 143 feet long muskie complete with an observation platform in its gaping mouth.

31. Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe is one of only two U.S. companies still producing Limburger, the world's stinkiest cheese.

32. The giant muskie also contains a memorial to Herman, a 16 1/2” night crawler who appeared on the “Tonight Show” and “Late Night with David Letterman.” Not only was Herman telegenic, but he was also able to paint using his entire body as a brush and to shoot a tiny basketball.

33. Celebrity cheeseheads include Lil Wayne, Larry the Cable Guy and Big Papi David Ortiz.

35. Wisconsin Statute 97.18, aka the “oleomargarine regulations” is, despite a 2011 attempt at repeal, still in place to guard dairy staters against the evils of having margarine masquerade as real butter. It's against the law to substitute margarine for butter in a restaurant unless the customer requests it, and even the margarine sold in grocery stores must be colored in a certain way so as to make sure it doesn't resemble butter too closely.

36. Wisconsin even champions domestic non-dairy-related agriculture, as this statute also forbids the use of imported oil in the production of margarine.

37. Wisconsin's rivers and streams, if laid end-to-end, would stretch for 26,767 miles, which is almost 2,000 miles more than the circumference of the earth.

38. The world's largest soup festival was at one time used to prepare soup for Laona's annual Community Soup festival. While the festival's still going on, and the kettle's still standing, it has retired from the soup cooking business.

39. Marathon County produces nearly all of the ginseng grown in the U.S.—about 10 percent of the world's total supply.

40. Wisconsin has more dairy cattle per square mile than any other state, and ranks second behind only California in milk production.

41. While Wisconsin created the first workman's compensation and unemployment insurance programs, they've been more recently associated with the welfare reform movement.

42. Wisconsin is the only state to have the accordion as its state instrument It was also, until 2011, the only state to have the polka as its official dance, until bandwagon-hopping Pennsylvania also rolled out the barrel.

43. Bloomer bills itself as the jump rope capital of the world due to its annual jump rope contest that has been going on since 1960.

44. The 52K American Birkebeiner, a cross-country ski race between Cable and Hayward, is North America's largest such event.

46. And speaking of clowns...while the original “killer clown” wasn't a cheesehead, Wisconsin has been home to Leatherface/Norman Bates inspiration Ed Gein and the “Milwaukee Cannibal” Jeffrey Dahmer.

47. The unmanned Soviet satellite Sputnik IV fell out of orbit in September of 1962, and, while most of it burned up on re-entry, one 20-lb. chunk of metal crashed to the ground in Manitowoc. The Rahr-West Art Museum, has a replica copy of it on display since the original was returned to the Soviets.

48. Baraboo was, in the 19th century, winter home to a number of different circuses, including Ringling Brothers. The Ringling may have left for the warmer climes of Florida but Baraboo's still got its clowns and elephants, though, performing at the Circus World Museum.

49. Warrens may be a tiny little village with only 400 residents, but each September it draws over 100,000 visitors to the world's largest cranberry festival. 50. Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, is the only baseball stadium that sells more brats than hot dogs. What's your favorite Wisconsin fun fact? Tell us in the comments below!