Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
The Conservation Movement
Between 1850 and 1920, concern for the natural world emerged as a complex and broadly popular political and cultural movement in the United States. Newly urbanized Americans were becomingly increasingly aware of the importance of nature as an economic, aesthetic, and spiritual resource, especially as they became convinced that nature's resources were imperiled by industrialization. This movement led to unprecedented public and private initiatives to ensure the conservation of natural resources and the preservation of wildlife and of land. By the turn of the twentieth century, Wisconsin had become a center of conservation thinking and activity in the United States.... more...
Original Documents and Other Primary Sources
 | The CCC tackles forest fires in Northern Wisconsin, 1934 |
| Increase Lapham surveys Wisconsin's trees, 1858 |
| Madison boasts the nation's first fish hatchery |
| Recollections of John Muir in Prairie du Chien, 1860-61. |
 | A Lake Geneva home becomes a refuge for native plants and birds |
| Constitution of the Wisconsin Game Protective Association, 1900 |
| John Nolen drafts a plan for a state park system in 1909 |
| A conservation education camp opens in Eagle River |
| The Forestry Commission urges the creation of a state forest system, 1898 |
| Wisconsin's earliest forest conservation plea, 1867 |
| A Guide to CCC Camps in Wisconsin, 1937 |
| Progressive-era conservation efforts, 1917-1922 |
 | The Killing of Chief Joe White (Gishkitawag), 1894 |
 | A CCC recruitment poster, 1939 |
| Smokey Bear visits Milwaukee in 1954 |
| Birdseye view of the first Wisconsin Fish Hatchery |
| Pictures of the cutover lands in northern Wisconsin |
| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
| Pictures of John Muir |
 | 30 original manuscript letters of John Muir, 1861-1914 |
| A visit to John Muir in his dorm room, ca. 1862. |
| John Muir's younger brother recalls their boyhood. |
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