Wisconsin is the 30th state of the United States of America.

Wisconsin received its name from the Wisconsin River, the name of which is derived from the French version of an Ojibwa term that may mean "gathering of the waters" or "place of the beaver".

It is customarily known as the Badger State because the miners who were among the first settlers in the region lived in mine shafts or dug their homes out of the hillside and lived underground, as badgers do.

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin. Milwaukee is the largest city.

Wisconsin entered the Union on May 29, 1848. It is one of the leading states in agriculture. Especially noted for its cheese production, the state is sometimes called the Cheese Capital of the Nation or America’s Dairyland.

The greater part of the state is composed of rolling plains that yield productive crops and fodder for the dairy industry.

Wisconsin also has substantial heavy industry, centered around Milwaukee and nearby cities along the shore of Lake Michigan.

In Wisconsin at the beginning of the 20th century, Robert La Follette and the Progressives evolved their theories of good government in close collaboration with leading scholars at the University of Wisconsin.

Roughly half a century later, Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy stirred deep controversy among Americans with his views on Communism and how to eradicate it in the United States.