Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
were the beers that Admiral Robert Peary found an empty Pabst bottle as he was
nearing the North Pole.
THE DECLINE
Aftertheindustry'szenith,whichsawperhaps60breweriesinMilwaukeeatitspeak,
the number dwindled to only a dozen or so after Prohibition, and today there is just
one, Miller (yes, yes, technically MillerCoors).
In the 1950s, Milwaukee could still claim to produce nearly 30 percent of the na-
tion's beer; today, the number is less than 5 percent.
Microbreweries and brewpubs (not the same thing) have inevitably cut into the
megabrewery markets. And yet microbrews are a throwback of sorts. The first beer
brewed in Milwaukee came from neighborhood brewers, most of which put out only
abarrelaweek,justenoughforthelocalboys.Asthemajorbreweriesgainedwealth,
they gobbled up large chunks of downtown land to create open-atrium
biergartens
and smoky
bierhalls,
in effect shutting out the smaller guys.
MosttellingofallmaybethedeconstructionofyetanotherWisconsinstereotype:
Cheeseheads, despite being born clutching personalized steins, do not drink more
beer per capita than any other state—that honor generally goes to Nevada. C'mon,
though,it'salltouristsonbenders,right?(Bytheway,moststatisticsonthisaremis-
leading—manyofthestatesthataresupposedlyheavierdrinkersthanWisconsinmay
appear that way since out-of-staters go there to buy beer. Trust me: we're a bunch of
beerheads here.)
Itain'tforMilwaukeeanlackoftrying;
Forbes
magazineoncedubbedMilwaukee
“America's Drunkest City.” (Many other media have chimed in with similar obser-
vations.)
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
(UWM) is second in enrollment only to the main
campus in Madison; it's well known for its civil engineering program. The
Golda Meir
Library
(2311 E. Hartford Ave., 414/229-6282,
www4.uwm.edu
, 8am-5pm Mon.-Fri.,
free) houses the
American Geographical Society Collection,
a priceless collection of
more than half a million maps, atlases, logbooks, journals, globes, charts, and navigational
aids. It includes what is reportedly the world's oldest known map, dating from the late 15th
century.
