U.S. entry into WWI in 1917 fueled a wave of anti-German sentiment across Wisconsin and across the nation. The fervor was particularly acute in Milwaukee, the most German city in the country. Historian John Gurda tells us how German Americans bore the brunt of war.
This story is part of the Wisconsin Life series, “Wisconsin in the First World War.”
Photo: Anti-German protest, Wisconsin Historical Images
“All Hallows’ Eve,” or Halloween, was originally a religious celebration. In Mexico on Nov. 1st and 2nd, Day of the Dead is observed. Nancy Camden introduces us to artist Jose Chavez who helped organize Milwaukee’s annual Day of the Dead community celebration.
Photo: Nancy Camden
Music: Milwaukee’s Jason Behr playing Manuel Ponce’s Sonatina Meridional (1st Movement)
Taylor Johnson’s family has harvested lumber in Northern Wisconsin for generations. While other loggers have embraced modern equipment, Taylor has found value in logging with a team of horses, in winter’s cold and summer’s heat.
Photo: Carl Corey
Wisconsin has its craft beer, artisanal coffee roasters, and specialty waters. Today, Terry Bell introduces us to one of Wisconsin’s newest craft beverages.
Photo: WiscoPop
Authors and book lovers are descending on Madison this weekend for the Wisconsin Book Festival. Students and residents in Baraboo recently completed a book of their own. Today we learn about “Dr. Vertigo’s Circus Spectacular,” the town’s second community-written novel.
Read the novel online.
Some of us love morning while others loathe the sound of the alarm and live for nights. Commentator Wendy Lutzke tells us what’s so great about getting up at dawn.
Wendy Lutzke is a writer and museum educator at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.
Photo: Wendy Lutzke
Seventy years ago, an innovative program to reforest the Great Lakes and teach natural resources management took root in Eagle River. Producer Emily Bright takes us inside Trees for Tomorrow.
Photo: Trees for Tomorrow
Every so often, wild horses and burros captured in the western United States are trucked to Mequon by the Bureau of Land Management field office in Milwaukee. Producer Nancy Camden went to see a mustang and burro adoption.
Photo: Nancy Camden
Music: “ETC” Nineteen Thirteen
The crack of a whip is an unmistakable sound, evoking thoughts of cattle drives and the American west. But if you listen with a bent ear near the village of Fall Creek you can hear those same spine tingling cracks echoing from the rolling hills. That’s Adam “Crack” Winrich, a world champion whip cracker who’s made a life out of the western arts.
Each fall, the nation’s biggest cranberry crop is harvested from Wisconsin marshes. And floods of travelers turn up to celebrate the tart star of the show. Emily Bright shares the view from her corner of Wisconsin.
Emily Bright is a freelance writer, educator, and radio producer living in Eagle River.
Photo: Robb and Jessie Stankey
Climbing trees is a childhood pastime. But for arborists, scaling trees to keep them healthy is a serious pursuit. Seth Jovaag brings us this story from Dane County.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
13,000 volts of electricity flow into Wisconsin’s tallest building every day, and for the last 22 years, one man has been in charge of making sure the lights stay on.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Amid the hustle of the state’s busiest emergency room, nurses have to keep a cool head. Rebecca Ramizini takes us inside a hospital on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more from Rebecca Ramizini - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Photo: Seth Jovaag
Fur trapping drove Wisconsin’s economy for more than 200 years. Trapping remains a way of life for some Wisconsinites, including one man who runs a trapping store and teaches others how it’s done.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more on trapping - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Photo: Seth Jovaag
Wild rice isn’t actually a rice at all. It’s an aquatic grass that has been an important food for native people for centuries. Fred Ackley, Jr., from the Mole Lake Reservation learned to harvest rice from his grandmother, and he continues to harvest and process it to this day.
This story was produced by Finn Ryan for The Ways.
Wisconsin’s reputation as the dairy state relies on labor from countries like Mexico. In today’s Wisconsin Life, we meet one of those workers in Buffalo County.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more from Alejandro Tepole - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Photo: Seth Jovaag
On a dead end street in the tiny village of Brooklyn, a former windmill factory now houses some of the most beautiful cars in the world. Albrecht Stachel is the man behind the wrench.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more from Albrecht Stachel - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Photo: Seth Jovaag
Ten years ago, Todd Cambio quit his job as a carpenter to become a luthier, specializing in guitars from the early 20th century that he now sells to musicians worldwide. Seth Jovaag introduces us to the Madison craftsman.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more from Todd Cambio - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
For many Wisconsinites, fishing is more than just a pastime. One Shawano angler is making waves in a male-dominated sport.
Learn more about Wisconsin’s working people - and hear more from Marianne Huskey - on The Working Lives Project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Photo: Marianne Huskey
Dr. Evermor has been turning bits of metal and other salvaged parts into fantastical sculpture since 1983. Behind Delaney’s Surplus near Baraboo, he’s created a whole world of mechanical creatures, insects, birds, and other contraptions.
Photo: Ross Grady
Wisconsin is home to one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States. Visitors from around the world come to Green Bay every summer to enjoy the rides and the beautiful views. Patty Murray has the story.
Photo: Green Bay Press Gazette
A windy road makes for motorcycle paradise. Ron Davis tells us about a legendary stretch of highway near La Crosse.
Ron Davis is a writer and teacher in Central Wisconsin.
Photo: Craft Barn
The list of what makes a place special is endless. Writer Jill Sisson Quinn tells us about what is for her, Earth’s most perfect place.
Jill Sisson Quinn is a nature writer and teacher in Central Wisconsin.
Photo: Pavel Trebukov
Many towns stake their claim to fame on an historical event, a large fiberglass object, or local delicacy. In Wisconsin, not one but three towns claim to be the state’s UFO Capital. Erik Lorenzsonn went to investigate.
Photo: SilentJoe