Posted in Wisconsin April 29, 2015 by

Here Are 15 Shocking Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Wisconsin

There are a lot of great things about Wisconsin–cheese, beautiful autumn, and friendly people–but there are a lot of awesome things that you don’t know about our great state.

We’re aware that these uncertain times are limiting many aspects of life. While we continue to feature destinations that make our state wonderful, please take proper precautions or add them to your bucket list to see at a later date. If you know of a local business that could use some extra support during these times, please nominate them here: onlyinyourstate.com/nominate
1. Wisconsin's state instrument is the accordion.
Patrick Pielarski
2. It was once illegal in Wisconsin to not serve apple pie with cheese.
jeffreyw
3. The Republican Party was born in Wisconsin.
Kenny Underwood
4. Those actually terrible towels--they're made in Wisconsin.
Kitty Schweizer
5. Wisconsin leads the country in ginseng production.
Daniel R. Blume
6. 90% of Wisconsin's milk is used for cheese. Okay, wait, maybe not a huge shocker.
Anne Swodoba
7. Miller Park is the only baseball stadium where more people choose to eat brats over hot dogs.
Kevin Dooley
8. Wisconsin is home to the first kindergarten.
woodleywonderworks
9. The QWERTY keyboard was invented.
Mike McKay
10. Barbie originated in Wisconsin.
romitagirl67
11. Mount Horeb, Wisconsin is the troll capital of the world.
joelrivlin
12. Wisconsin's rivers and streams, if laid end to end, would be 2,000 miles longer than the earth's circumference.
Joshua Mayer
13. People get together to throw cow poop. Really. It's an annual festival.
Benny Mazur
14. 100,000 people flood Warren, Wisconsin (population: 400) every year for the world's largest cranberry festival.
Bruce Foster
15. Wisconsin isn't called the badger state because of the animal, but because miners would have to dig holes in the ground to sleep in during winter months--kind of like badgers do.
Peter Trimming

There are so many great things that even Wisconsinites don’t know about Wisconsin.  Did we forget any?  Make sure to leave them in the comments.