Enjoy a browse through Wisconsin 101âs collection of object histories. Click on the âRead Moreâ button to view the full story and its accompanying related histories or explore the categories listed above each object history to learn more about certain themes, periods of time, and Wisconsin locales.
Between the 1840s and the 1890s, logs meant money. Wisconsin had a large supply of trees. Lumber mills made money by cutting down trees. Logging was one of the largest industries in Wisconsin. There were more than 450 lumber camps across Wisconsin. If we study this log-marking hammer and think about the people that used…
As the lumber industry flourished in Wisconsin beginning in the 1840s, immigrants from all over Europe and Canada came to live and work in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. All winter, men called lumberjacks would cut down pine trees, preparing the timber to be used as building material, or sometimes to be turned into pulp or…
The bark spud is an iron tool used to remove bark from cut timber. Most bark spuds have a steel head with a hard wooden handle. The head is rounded or dish-shaped and has one cutting edge. The sharp wedge on the end of the bark spud slides between bark and wood on a log…
Created in 1879, this beautiful plaque features the genealogy of Sara Magelssen's family, including the story of her and her husband's immigration to Wisconsin in the 1860s.
This cabin, once occupied by a family of migrant workers employed by the Bond Pickle Company, is located at the property of Thomas and Jamie Sobush of Pensaukee, Wisconsin. The cabin was originally one of many other small cabins, clustered together at the Bond Village Migrant Camp on Van Hecke Avenue in Oconto, Wisconsin. The…
The classic Mepps fishing lure the Aglia, was invented in France in the 1930s and patented in 1938. (Mepps is a French acronym for Manufacturier dâ Engins de Precision pour Peches Sportives, translated as âManufacture of Precision Equipment for Sport Fishingâ.) It was introduced to northern Wisconsin, and to the U.S., by a G.I. returning from France.…