Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the turn of the 20th century, Wisconsin was home to almost 10 percent of all the
Danes
in the United States—the second-largest national contingent. Most originally settled
inthenortheast(thecityofDenmarkliesjustsoutheastofGreenBay),butlaterimmigrants
wound up farther south. To this day, Racine is nicknamed “Kringleville,” for its flaky Dan-
ish pastry.
The
Dutch
settled primarily in Milwaukee and Florence Counties beginning in the
1840s,whenpotatocropsfailedandprotestsflaredovertheReformedChurch.Thesesouth-
eastern counties today sport towns such as Oostburg, New Amsterdam, and Holland.
In 1846, a large contingent of
Swiss
from the Glarus canton sent emissaries to the New
World to search out a suitable immigration site. Eventually, the two scouts stumbled upon
the gorgeous, lush valleys of southwestern Wisconsin. A great deal of Swiss heritage re-
mains in Green County.
Italians
began arriving in the 1830s—many Genoese migrated north from Illinois lead
camps to fish and scavenge lead along the Mississippi River—but didn't arrive in substan-
tial numbers until the early 1900s. Most settled in the southeast, specifically Milwaukee,
Racine, and especially Kenosha.
Perhaps unique to Wisconsin is the large population of
Icelandic
immigrants, who
settledonfar-flungWashingtonIsland,northeastofDoorPeninsula.Itwasthelargestsingle
Icelandic settlement in the United States when they arrived in 1870 to work as fishers.
