Wisconsin: A Geographic Profile

i got one aardvark one flamingo four porcupines two armadillas three badgers badgers badgers we don't need no stinking badgers howdy it's kyle talking about wisconsin in this video i'll be going over various aspects of the geography of the state are we talking about the cities and the urban landscape i'll be going over the physical geography of the state to include the lakes protected areas overall general scenery and some of the national disasters are we talking about some of the economic indicators of the state to include industries dry of the economy companies are headquartered in the state tax rates and agriculture and i'll also be going over many aspects of the culture of the state to include the signature food so if you're interested in learning more about the badger state this is the video for you wisconsin is a midwestern state sitting along two of the great lakes to the east is lake michigan and to the north is lake superior it has a population of about 5.9 million people which ranks at 20th in the u.s and is 25th in terms of area and is the most northerly state in the us that does not border canada it became a state in 1848 and was a 30th state admitted to the union the capital city is madison it has a population of about 264 000 people and it's a very fast-growing city it's located within dane county which has a population of about 560 000 people that's the fastest growing county in the state and the overall madison metropolitan area is ranked about 100 in the us in terms of size one interesting geographic quirk about madison it sits along an itzmus which is the most difficult word to say in geography and it's miss but it's it's got two large lakes on each side that sits along a kind of a narrow piece of land so the lakes on the sides of the ithamas are lakes mendota and monona it's also home to the university of wisconsin which is a huge university and a city that's known for having more bikes than cars state street is the main street that goes through downtown that's your big nightlife area other great local shops and boutiques and because it is a call of town there's a lot of bookstores and there's at least one record shop right downtown as well and with it being a hip young and cool city there's a lot of great outdoor activities in the city and nearby there are over 200 miles of biking trails in the area it's big for mountain biking in some of the state parks and state forests just outside of the city a lot of great state and county parks right around the city and there's a really cool spot at the end of the university of wisconsin campus called picnic point this is an area along the uw lake shore preserve it's one of the most highly educated cities in the entire country with 58 of the population being a college graduate and 26 of the population having either a masters or a phd and just like many other cities like madison being both the state capital and a college town means there's a lot of educated people in the city so a lot of the new jobs in the 21st century want to be located where there are a lot of educated people madison is one of those places a lot of jobs are coming to the city and the city's economy is doing very well the largest city in the state is milwaukee has a population of about 585 000 people it's the 30th largest city in the us but the population is declining milwaukee county with about 940 000 people does have a slight decline in population but only the city of milwaukee is really losing population the rest of the county some of the immediate suburbs are gaining in population and all of the suburban counties from milwaukee are gaining as well but they are gaining population fairly slowly the milwaukee metropolitan area has about 2.2 million people which makes it 33rd in the us milwaukee does have one of the lowest costs of living for big cities in the us it's right about the overall u.s national average for cost of living however it does have a pretty high poverty rate at about 22 percent it is known for having a pretty high crime rate but there are other cheap rundown houses you can get in some of the inner city areas milwaukee is nicknamed brew city because of its macro brewery heritage but there are about 20 micro breweries in the city as well it is a city where the downtown is the heart and soul a lot of great downtown restaurants and bars and it's a nightlife heart of the city as well the historic third ward is an area downtown it's a little more upscale it's kind of riverwalk some upscale condos boutiques and art galleries east town is the eastern part of downtown this is where you have the central business district most of the high rises and also big areas for nightlife as well river west is a really cool neighborhood near the university of wisconsin-milwaukee campus it's kind of a hippie gentrification area as opposed to hipster identification and what i mean by more hippie type gentrification is that it's more multicultural and green oriented development but because the city had a lot of manufacturing jobs that left the city and yet a lot of areas that were kind of derelict and empty so there's been quite a bit of gentrification going on in milwaukee as well the area around the harbor has been gentrified pretty well bronzeville is another gentrified area that's predominantly black a lot of cultural and entertainment options there it's also home to the summerfest music festival was one of the largest music festivals in the world being right there along lake michigan there are some nice beaches bradford beach is the most popular one in the town there are also lots of bike paths in the city and just outside and in the winter time these become snowshoeing at cross-country skiing trails with the german heritage of the area there's a lot of great german restaurants in the city as well and a part of town called clark square has a lot of ethnic restaurants so most of the things you hear about milwaukee and the media are going to be pretty negative they're going to focus on the crime and the drugs and the gang issues but there are many parts of the town that are really nice and it really is a pretty nice city that is underrated and isn't quite as bad as it gets the wrap for the media the next largest city in the state is green bay with about 104 thousand people and it's growing slightly it's located within brown county which has about 268 000 people and it's growing slightly green bay sits at the south end of green bay which is the largest bay on lake michigan and there are a lot of great bay shore parks and areas there along the park bluffs but green bay is certainly most known for the green bay packers which is a professional football team and green bay is the smallest city in the u.s and has a major pro sports team and it's also the only major pro sports team that is publicly owned so i mean if it were owned by a giant corporation they probably would have moved to a bigger city a long time ago so the fact that it is publicly owned is why you can have a major pro sports team in a town as small as green bay and its self-given nickname is the toilet paper capital of the world because there's a large paper industry located in the city a little bit south of green bay is the city of appleton which is the sixth largest city in the state with about 74 000 people and it's fairly slow growing it's located within autogamy county i'm not sure that's how you pronounce it but there are 190 000 people in that county and this region is known as the fox cities so these are areas right along the fox river so appleton is the biggest one but there are several other smaller towns in this fox cities region and you have an area called the fox river paper trail which is about 50 mile trail that goes around the area although a lot of it is urban streets but a lot of it does go through many of the parks in the region and there's a really cool pedestrian bridge called the trestle trail bridge and just has a really cool look to it just a way to cross over the river and just a little bit south of appleton is the city of oshkosh which has a population of about 68 000 people it's growing very slowly it's the ninth largest city in the state it's located within winnebago county which has about 174 000 people and the city is located along the west shore of lake winnebago which is a large lake in the southeastern quadrant of the state there's a nice riverwalk that goes along the river right downtown and the most popular park in this city is menomonee park which is right along the lake has fishing and boating walking trails there's a beach there and a kid's amusement park another nice spot is called terrell's island which is a wetland preserve just west of town there's good trails and paddling around there continuing south you get to the town of fond du lac which is at the southern end of lake winnebago there are about 44 000 people in the city is the 15th largest city in the state and it is growing fondue lock county has about 105 000 people and it's also growing and just like oshkosh there's a really nice lakeside park there there's a beach and marina with restaurants and bars north main street has a really nice historic desert with some pretty cool shops but overall it's such a nice town right there at the end of the lake so appleton oshkosh and fond du lac are all located right along the large lake winnebago but i do think fond du lac is the nicest of those three towns east of fond du lac along the lake michigan shoreline is a city of sheboygan there are about 47 000 people in the city is the 14th largest city in the state and the population is declining sheboygan county has about 115 000 people with a flat population growth that's an okay downtown nice area for walking around near the lake and it's nicknamed the malibu of the midwest it is one of the best spots in the great lakes to go surfing just south of the milwaukee metropolitan area located along lake michigan is a city of racine there are about 76 000 people in the city it's the sixth largest city in the state where the population is declining however racine counts without 196 000 people is growing slightly it's a little bit poor and has a little higher crime than the other cities in the state that i've mentioned besides milwaukee but it's not to say that it's a dump it's just that most wisconsin cities are pretty nice this one just isn't quite as nice although the downtown is historic it's good for walking around and there's also some nice beaches there north beach is the main beach for the city continuing south along the shore of lake michigan is a city of kenosha there's a population of about 101 000 people it's the fourth largest city in the state and is growing slowly kenosha county has about 171 000 people and is also growing slowly and this is the far southeastern corner of the state so it's right along lake michigan and the southern end of the city of kenosha is the illinois state line and kenosha is almost exactly halfway between chicago and milwaukee and this area was once a major manufacturing center but a lot of the jobs went away so now it's more of a commuter type city so if you're someone that maybe a couple one person works in milwaukee the other spouse works in chicago you can live at kenosha and commute to east or if you're willing to commute a larger distance you can live in kenosha where it's a lot cheaper to live in than either chicago or milwaukee but there are some really nice outdoor areas just outside of kenosha there's an area called chilwaki prairie which is a 482 acre lake plain and wetland and a really cool spot is called petrifying springs park sometimes hiking biking and fishing there's an artesian well there and in the winter there's cross-country skiing and snowshoeing heading west of kenosha pretty close to the illinois border is the city of janesville there are about 65 000 people in the city it's the 10th largest city in the state and is growing slowly it's located within rock county which has about 165 000 people and it's also growing slowly its nickname wisconsin's great outside and is known for its parks and it has a large arboretum and botanical garden but similar to kenosha it was mainly a manufacturing city there was a large gm plant that closed there in 2009 and now all the folks that live in janesville actually work in madison and commute to a half an hour south of madison heavy northwest the next city i want to talk about is lacrosse there are about 50 000 people in the city it's a 12th largest city in the state and its population is declining la crosse county has about 118 000 people and is growing slightly it's located right along the mississippi river which is the border with minnesota it has a 23 percent poverty rate which is really high for a wisconsin city that's more like what you'd expect in the south so i'm not really sure why that is it otherwise seems like a pretty nice city equal to the other cities i've mentioned in wisconsin i like the downtown there it's the main area for local businesses and restaurants and a spot called goose island which is in the mississippi river there are nature trails and fishing there as well it's also not too far from rochester minnesota which is home to the mayo clinic and there's a regional canvas at the mayo clinic in la crosse heading north the next city i want to talk about is eau claire there are about 70 000 people in the city and is growing and eau claire county has about 106 000 people and it's also growing eau claire is growing faster than all of the other cities in the state besides madison or some of the milwaukee suburbs so amongst all the smaller metro areas in the state is the fastest growing one so we've got the toilet paper capital of the world the malibu of the midwest and eau claire is the horseradish capital of the world really cool nicknames for wisconsin cities and it's called that because the largest grower and producer of horseradish is located right there in eau claire and right about in the middle of the state is a town of wausau which has about 38 000 people it's a 19th largest city in the state and the population is declining it's located within marathon county which has about 137 000 people and it's growing slowly it sits right along the wisconsin river right in the middle of the state and this part of the state is much more hilly so it's not quite mountainous but it's more rolling hills and little more terrain than the southern portion of the state the city has lower wages and lower housing costs than most of wisconsin with the largest part of the economy in the region being paper manufacturing following the vietnam war many hmong and laotian refugees came to the u.s and many of them came to wisconsin and wausau is one of the main towns where many of the hmong refugees went to and today the city is about 12 percent long and there's so many other really cool small towns in the state but i certainly can't get to all of them but the ones that i discussed here are the major cities of the state and the largest counties in metropolitan areas now i want to get into some of the physical geography aspects of wisconsin and most of the state will be classified as either prairie or rolling hills with generally a little more variation in topography as you go more in the northern portions of the state but just like its neighbors to the west and east minnesota and michigan the most defining feature of the physical geography of wisconsin is its water wisconsin officially has about 15 000 lakes in the state which makes it larger than the number of official lakes in minnesota however minnesota requires a body of water to be at least 10 acres making through the lake uh much smaller designation for wisconsin so if they were using the exact same criteria there will be more lakes minnesota but either way wisconsin has a ton of lakes but the reason why there are so many lakes is the same reason why there are so many lakes in minnesota and that's glaciation during the last ice age glaciers were able to come farther south and as it moved farther south it picked up debris along the way but eventually it got to the point where it was just too warm to extend south and the overall environment was warming up so the glaciers retreated and as it retreated left all that debris behind that's called a moraine and sometimes when that glazer is retreating a piece of ice in the bottom of the glacier calves off or breaks off and it is left behind so what happens when the glacier goes away that little piece of ice that was left behind is formed as a depression eventually it melts into a lake that's a glacial lake and because you had so much glacial retreat in wisconsin and the upper midwest is why you have so many lakes in this region in the southeastern portion of the state where the majority of the population lives is an area called the kettle moraine this is an area where there are a lot of depressions which are called kettles and the moraines of the hills so geologically it's nothing like the original valley province of pennsylvania or the basin range of nevada but it's similar in terms of its undulating topography from hills and valleys even though it's marines and kettles generally speaking as you go north in the state you get a little more elevation and the highest point in this heat that's called tim's hill has an elevation of 1951 feet and it's located in the north central part of the state the mississippi river forms most of the western boundary of the state with minnesota and the northwestern portion of the state border with minnesota is the saint croix river which once it gets fully into wisconsin becomes the saint croix national scenic riverway this is a beautiful protected area it's a really nice spot for paddling there are no actual national parks in the state however there is apostle islands national lakeshore which is the north shore of the state right along lake superior the apostle islands are a cluster of islands in lake superior and you can get around between them with a boat or you can paddle with a kayak something that's really cool about the apostle islands is that there are many sea caves that you can paddle into and in the winter time when a lot of the water is frozen you can get to the sea caves by walking to them also in the northern portion of the state is a northern highlands american legion state forest another well-protected area beautiful woods there are not very many people that live in the northern third of the states you do have some areas of nice protected woods and some genuine true wilderness another interesting area of physical geography in the state are the wisconsin dells and this is a relatively young river gorge it was only formed about 20 000 years ago and it's a nice spot with some good cliffs people will jump off the cliffs into the river it's a very popular spot for summer recreation i didn't mention this when i was talking about the cities of the state but right next to the actual physical wisconsin dells is the town of wisconsin dells this is a very popular destination from late spring to early fall people go there to play in the river a lot of amusement parks and water slides it's kind of similar to branson missouri but just not as hot during the summer and that's a nice segue into the climate of wisconsin when most people think about the climate of wisconsin they're going to think about the winter because it is the worst season of the year for most people it does get really cold and has lots of snow this is a map of the average annual snowfall in wisconsin and as you can tell the snowiest parts of state are in the north especially those areas that are just off the shore of lake superior you have some of that lake effect snow now compare that to the southern portion of the state especially the southwestern portion where you don't get that much snow i mean that's a good amount of snow but it's nowhere near as much as you're going to get in the northern portion of the state or other areas along the great lakes now here's a map of the average annual rainfall for the state it's basically the exact opposite as the annual snowfall map but the reason why there's so much more rainfall in the southern portion of the state than the areas along the lake is because you have a lot of thunderstorm in the southern portion of the state a lot of snow in the north a lot of rain in the south a lot of lakes and rivers it's a pretty wet state in terms of natural disasters with all that water the biggest concern is going to be flooding there have been multiple major flooding events to occur this century including 2008 and september 2010. these were major events that resulted in the presidential disaster declaration but there are many other smaller flooding events that occur just over a small area that don't lead to a federal disaster declaration and with all those thunderstorms you get in the spring and summertime another big concern for the state are tornadoes 2011 was the worst year on record for tornadoes in the us and wisconsin was not spared in april of that year there were several tornadoes that hit the state including a couple of major ones another disaster that people in wisconsin have to worry about are dara shows aderato is a very strong straight-line windstorm so you think of a cyclone storm like a tornado or a hurricane these are rotating winds where the dara show is just a straight-line powerful wind gust in 2020 there was a huge dara show event that affected the midwest iowa was a state that was affected the most but wisconsin suffered a lot of damage as well and the wind speeds for a dairy show including this one from 2020 were about category 1 category 2 hurricane strength fortunately they don't occur too often but when they do they can do a ton of damage next i want to get into some of the economic indicators of the state and wisconsin along with pennsylvania are the only two states in the country where the largest part of the economy is general manufacturing other states for manufacturing is the largest part of the economy tend to be either automotive or aerospace so for wisconsin it's simply general manufacturing wisconsin's gdp is about 358 billion dollars per year which ranks at 21st in the us it's gdp per capita is about 48 000 per year which ranks at 26th its household income is about 68 000 per year which ranks at 28th and its poverty rate is about 11 which is the 17th lowest in the us so for all these major financial and economic statistics wisconsin's pretty much right down the middle some of the largest companies headquartered in the state include sc johnson and company which says cleaning supplies and consumer chemicals and sc johnson almost always ranks as one of the best companies to work for it's always very high very highly rated uh some of the other big companies in the state include johnson controls not affiliated with sc johnson they do hvac refrigeration smart home tech and video surveillance also in the state are cellular logistics who do cardiovascular cell therapies kohl's department stores menards home stores brawn company who makes elevators kohler kitchen and bath design manpower staffing firm fi serve global financial services technology ashley furniture home stores rockwell automation who does industrial robotics schneider international which says trucking and logistics for shipping harley-davidson motorcycles briggs and stratton gas engines quik trip convenience stores oshkosh company who make specialty trucks including military and fire trucks snap-on tools uline shipping and business supplies jockey international underwear and sleepwear american family insurance company and northwestern mutual financial services which i believe is the largest revenue generating company in the state so a lot of large companies headquartered in wisconsin and earlier i had mentioned how wisconsin's number one part of the economy is general manufacturing but of course agriculture is also a major part of the economy there as well wisconsin ranks eighth in the us in terms of total agricultural output at about 12 billion dollars per year wisconsin is known as america's dairyland and it ranks first in overall cheese production second in milk production and second in overall dairy production but there's a lot more to wisconsin ag than just dairy the state ranks first in cranberry production first in snap peas third in potatoes ninth in beef cattle and tenth in corn hogs and soybeans are also important parts of the wisconsin agricultural sector however the state doesn't rank in the top ten for either and now it's time for everyone's favorite category and that's the tax rates wisconsin's income tax rates are pretty high with most people paying about 6.3 percent and it also ranks very high on property taxes at 1.9 percent the fifth highest in the country although it is worth noting that the median household value in wisconsin is below the national average so really high in income tax really high on property tax but the state ranks 43rd in sales tax at only 5.4 so even though the overall tax burden of the state is above average i personally do appreciate that it has a low sales tax in terms of overall economic health wisconsin is doing pretty well with a very diversified manufacturing sector that doesn't rely on just one sector of manufacturing such as automotive there's also a very diversified agricultural sector including dairy which is often more profitable for farmers and other aspects of agriculture so the overall economy is doing pretty well and wisconsin often ranked as one of the best states in which to live next i want to get into some of the signature foods of wisconsin and the state is known for having some really good signature foods and with a lot of folks having german heritage there you have a lot of german influenced dishes as well as some german beverages when i think of food from wisconsin the first thing i think of are bratwurst and other sausage germans are known for meat and tube form and german immigrants came to wisconsin and made meat in tube form and today sheboygan is known as the bratwurst capital of the world and with wisconsin being the number one producer of cheese in the u.s you can expect many signature dishes in wisconsin to incorporate cheese these include fried cheese curds and i don't know the whole cheese making process but these are fried before they become what we normally eat is cheese but either way they're really good it's also known for limb burger cheese which is probably most well known for being a very stinky cheese and the only place in the country that makes limb burger cheese is in wisconsin also popular in wisconsin are corners pasties which are like fried pies they're filled with beef and potatoes or maybe other types of vegetables and things it's almost like a calzone really but i was told by michigan folks it's not pronounced pasty it's a pasty and what could possibly be more wisconsin than beer cheese soup i mean it's literally how it sounds it's a beer cheese soup it's usually made with sharp cheddar and they sprinkle popcorn on top you know because why not wisconsin in general and specifically milwaukee are known for its big beer production milder beer was a wisconsin company that since been bought out by an international conglomerate but it's still home to miller beer and was also home to slits so you did have some macro brews located there but you do have some micro brewers replacing those these days and i'm not trying to be funny with this but wisconsin is generally known as the state that consumes the most alcohol per capita i wanted to briefly discuss something that's pretty unique to wisconsin and that's the lumberjack games it's home to the world lumberjack championships it's where a bunch of burly men and women lumberjacks and lumberjails show off their axemanship sawmillship and just doing all kinds of cool things you can do with axes and saws and they have log rolling so they have events like this in other states but this is definitely a wisconsin thing so now i want to discuss a little bit about the pro sports in wisconsin the green bay packers have won four super bowl championships and i'd also like to point out that the minnesota vikings are known for being the team that just lost the most super bowls but i don't care about those two but i do care about is the baseball team the milwaukee brewers i don't really care about the team itself but something they do during the seventh ending stretch of home games is a sausage race and this is literally just people putting on ridiculous sausage costumes running a race around the bases to see who can win there are five different sausage types they use for costumes and the crowd can cheer on their favorite sausage and i don't know where they find the people to run the race but i guarantee one thing they're drunk so you got a bunch of drunk people running around in sauces costumes half the time one of them falls over and takes other ones down with them and let's be honest if you were to ask a hundred americans what's the first state that you think of if you were to think about drunk people running around the sausage costumes they're all gonna say wisconsin so that's my overview of wisconsin it's a nice state it's usually considered one of the best overall states manufacturing a bunch of different indicators and it really does stand out and many of the cities in wisconsin end up on all those lists like top places to live or retire so it does really end up coming up as a top state when you factor in so many things so kind of like minnesota to the west two of the i think better overall states but man those winters are really brutal but i hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give me a thumbs up to let me know you approve and subscribe to this channel if you're interested i'm interested in learning more about us geography i'm talking about cities and counties and stage and ranking them in all kinds of different categories talking about cross-country road tripping and just everything i talk about comes from a little more nerdy type perspective but yeah thanks for watching geography king signing out

Channel: Geography King

Views: 54,861

Keywords: geography, geography king, wisconsin, milwaukee

Id: yoV3yd7RCjs

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 14 2021