Economy and Environment
Wisconsin Citizen Petition Exhibit
In the early nineteenth century, Wisconsin lead mining was more promising and attractive to potential settlers than either the fur trade or farming. Its potentially quick rewards lured a steady stream of settlers up the Mississippi River and into Grant, Crawford, Iowa, and Lafayette counties. By 1829, more than 4,000 miners worked in southwestern Wisconsin, producing 13 million pounds of lead a year. Miners petitioned the territorial legislature for some of the earliest labor protections.
Petition for incorporating the "Iron Ridge Iron Company"
Petitioner requests to incorporate the "Iron Ridge Iron Company" for the purposes of mining and manufacturing iron.
However, with the supply of easily accessible ore diminished by the mining boom of the 1820s and 1830s, demand for Wisconsin lead declined. In the 1840s white settlers began to actively develop the lumber industry that had been carried out for decades on a small scale. Petitioners worked to increase the number mills and the access to the water sources necessary to move lumber.
Lumber raft
roup of men standing knee deep in water using handspikes View the original source document: WHI 4269
Although facing obstacles such as long distances from supplies and markets, limited transportation, and unimproved waterways and roads, the lumber industry grew to form the backbone of the state's economy by the middle of the century. Rivers provided a convenient way to transport pine logs from the forests to the mills. Entire cities such as Stevens Point and Wausau grew up around these mills and their residents vocalized their appreciation with petitions for dams, bridges, and docks to facilitate lumber interests. Yet other citizen groups loudly opposed the lumber industry’s clogging of their waterways. As the industry grew, the legislature was petitioned for a number of specific improvements.
For example, allowing private citizens to build dams to facilitate shipping or authorizing companies to build and maintain dams. Another approach was the attempt to classify the Shioc River and its tributaries as a public highway for log driving.
In contrast, others sought to limit the industry by preventing the damming of waterways. The Kilbourn City Dam was a frequent topic of petitions. Pollution was another major concern, with "floodtrash" (or lumber waste) making river navigation difficult.
Construction of the Kilbour Dam
Slightly elevated view of men working on the Kilbourn dam View the original source document: WHI 7989
Railroads transformed Wisconsin industries in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century. Transporting lumber by train allowed loggers to work year-round and to cut lumber that had previously been impossible to float down rivers. Railroads also provided a way for Wisconsinites to deliver agricultural products that many people needed: from 1840 to 1880, Wisconsin was considered "America's breadbasket" because one-sixth of the wheat grown in the nation came from Wisconsin. The success of railroad technology boosted popular support of industrialization and founded interest in institutions dedicated to growing industry.
Logging Train
View across stacks of logs towards a group of men posing near or on a logging train View the original source document: WHI 126210
Citizens petitioned strongly for railroads recognizing their power to solidify a community's standing. Of paricular importance was connecting cities to the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River. These connections allowed commercial products to reach eastern market.
While the lumber industry swelled Wisconsin’s urban centers, citizens petitioned the legislature to regulate consumption of the state’s rich natural resources. Petitions called for the passage of laws protecting prairies from fires, protecting waterways from lumber clogs, setting hunting and fishing laws, and regulating animal farming.Despite conservation efforts, logging methods changed overtime, leading to the clear cutting of usable trees. Some logging towns survived as retail and distribution centers, or as centers of paper manufacturing as mills shifted from the production of lumber. But many northern towns simply shrank into small rural communities that struggled to cope with the Great Depression. Not until the forests recovered their growth and the tourist industry boomed after World War II would the economy of the Northwoods revive.