Wisconsin's coldest temperature, highest point and more superlative facts from 'The Geography of Wisconsin'

The observation tower on Timm's Hill, Wisconsin's highest point, provides stunning views of fall colors
The observation tower on Timm's Hill, Wisconsin's highest point, provides stunning views of fall colors

With nearly 250 maps and photographs, the newly published "The Geography of Wisconsin" (University of Wisconsin Press) is an engaging introduction to the physical features of this state.

Authors John A. Cross and Kazimierz J. Zaniewski, both emeritus professors of geography at UW-Oshkosh, also devote considerable attention to the human geography of Wisconsin, including settlement patterns and economic activity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted even the work of geographers, they point out in the preface to their book, noting its impact on the 2020 census. While some pandemic effects on schools, tourism and business were immediately apparent, "the resulting unemployment, business failures, and financial losses will be felt in the state for years," Cross wrote.

From highlights of Wisconsin's physical landscape to the foods cultivated and consumed, here are 20 mostly superlative and sometimes surprising facts gleaned from their book:

1. Astride the 45ºN parallel, Wisconsin is halfway between the equator and the North Pole.

RELATED: This Wisconsin town is famed for being the center of the northwest hemisphere. It's not.

2. Wisconsin's 54,310 square miles make it the middle child of the United States. Twenty-four states have a larger land area, while 25 states have less.

3. Timms Hill in Price County, elevation 1,951.5 feet, is the highest spot in the state.

4. The coldest minimum temperature recorded in Wisconsin was minus 55°F, at Couderay in Sawyer County in 1996.

5. Wisconsin is one of the best places in the world to see drumlins — streamlined hills formed by moving glacial ice. Geologists have mapped more than 2,000 drumlins in the area of the Green Bay Lobe, a broad mass of glacial ice that flowed from what is now Green Bay to Madison about 18,000 years ago.

The Geography of Wisconsin. By John A. Cross and Kazimierz J. Zaniewski.
The Geography of Wisconsin. By John A. Cross and Kazimierz J. Zaniewski.

6. In the early 1800s, about 85% of Wisconsin was covered by forests. During the 1890s, Wisconsin produced more timber than any other state.

7. Wisconsin's deadliest tornado hit New Richmond in St. Croix County on June 12, 1899, killing 117 people. It was the ninth deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

8. Wisconsin ranks fifth in the nation in sales of cut Christmas trees.

9. The Morrill Act of 1862 established the system of land-grant colleges. Educational institutions were granted acreage of federally controlled land either for expansion or to sell to raise funds. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, was one such school. But there wasn't enough public land in New York state for Cornell's grant. So Cornell was granted 500,000 acres of timberland in Wisconsin's Chippewa River valley. Rather than selling the land immediately for market value, Cornell hung on to it until the early 1900s, adding $5 million to the Cornell endowment.

10. Lafayette County is 84.5% farmland (per 2017 figures), the state's largest proportion.

11. The number of Wisconsin’s farms has fallen sharply since 1950, when 168,561 were counted. The 2017 census tallied 64,793 farms, most too small for a full-time living.

12. The statewide average or mean farm size in 2017 was 221 acres, while the median was 90 acres, showing how a few large farms affect the statistics.

13. Wisconsin is the nation's third-largest producer of potatoes. They grow well in the sandy soil of Portage and other counties.

Amber Bristow is shown with her husband, Dan, and newborn son, Porter, at their family cranberry farm.
Amber Bristow is shown with her husband, Dan, and newborn son, Porter, at their family cranberry farm.

14. The world leader in cranberry production, Wisconsin had 48.9% of the nation’s harvested cranberry acreage in 2017. It produced 5,372,000 100-pound barrels of cranberries, 64.2% of the nation’s harvest.

15. Wisconsin ranks second nationally in its number of organic farms. Only California has more.

16. Thanks to advances in dairy technology, in 2017 a typical Wisconsin milk cow produced 23,725 pounds of milk annually, nearly three times the average yield in 1950.

17. By 2019, Wisconsin had 56 Amish settlements with an estimated combined population of 22,020. Only three other states have more Amish residents than Wisconsin.

An Amish farmer makes his way to work on a fence along Highway D between Cashton and La Farge.
An Amish farmer makes his way to work on a fence along Highway D between Cashton and La Farge.

18. Led by mozzarella, Italian cheeses account for 50.5% of Wisconsin's cheese output, according to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics report of 2019.

19. In the whole U.S., grocery stores outnumber taverns by 13%. But Wisconsin has 2.7 taverns for every grocery store, the nation's highest ratio. "Within many small Wisconsin communities, it is far easier to obtain a beer than to buy a gallon of milk," Cross writes.

20. "More people have moved away from Wisconsin than to the state every year for more than a decade," a Wisconsin Policy Forum workforce report stated in 2019.

Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 20 superlative and surprising facts from 'The Geography of Wisconsin'