Aerial.America.S06E02.Wisconsin
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00It's a land of rugged shorelines, sculptures carved by nature's hand, and rushing rivers
00:16that wind through colorful forests.
00:19A land whose power inspired one of America's greatest architects and produces harvests
00:24of plenty that feed millions—Wisconsin.
00:28It was once America's wild frontier and can still feel that way today.
00:36From its fortunes in timber and fur to its fertile soil, Wisconsin's natural riches
00:43helped build the nation.
00:46Waves of European settlers colored Wisconsin life with their distinctive cultures and made
00:51Milwaukee famous for its wildly successful beer industry.
00:56Here, two friends, tinkering with engines in a backyard shed, created one of America's
01:01most iconic machines.
01:04It's a state full of surprising twists and turns.
01:10In Wisconsin, archaeologists have discovered intriguing evidence of an ancient people and
01:15their mysterious rituals, and a now peaceful river was once the site of a brutal massacre
01:22by the U.S. Army.
01:25And a remote, working-class town is home to one of the biggest success stories in professional
01:30sports.
01:32Welcome to the very colorful world of Wisconsin.
02:02There's nothing like a sunrise in Wisconsin.
02:29When the morning light bathes forests, fields, and farms.
02:39When flocks of birds salute the dawn.
02:42And wind turbines reap the morning breezes.
02:46It's a state that gleams like a treasure chest heaped with gold.
02:55It was the promise of treasure that first lured Europeans to the land that's now Wisconsin
03:00nearly 400 years ago.
03:03In 1634, a French explorer named Jean Nicolet paddled into this body of water, now known
03:12as Green Bay.
03:13He was searching for a route to China where he believed he could find great riches.
03:21When he stepped ashore on this wild coastline, Nicolet was dressed in Chinese silk robes
03:27and fired his pistols into the air, hoping to impress anyone who might be watching.
03:33In fact, some were.
03:35A few of Wisconsin's native Ho-Chunk Indians appeared out of the trees and invited Nicolet
03:40to a banquet of beaver.
03:46He quickly realized that the area was rich in fur, and claimed the land that's now Wisconsin
03:52for the King of France.
03:54He also named the body of water he arrived on, Green Bay, for its distinctive color.
04:09These days, there's no doubt about whether Wisconsin belongs to France.
04:15Especially among those who live here, in the city of Green Bay, which lies at the mouth
04:21of the Fox River, just a few miles from where Jean Nicolet first landed on Wisconsin's shores.
04:30But the true heart of this city isn't its downtown.
04:34It's Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers football team.
04:42This 70,000-seat stadium is a holy shrine for Packers fans.
04:46It was named after Earl Curley Lambeau, who started Wisconsin's legendary team back in 1919.
04:55Green Bay is the smallest city in the country with a major professional sports team.
05:00But the Packers have no problem filling seats.
05:03Since 1960, every game played at Lambeau Field has been sold out.
05:09The current wait for season tickets is 30 years.
05:14There's a good reason the field is empty today.
05:16It's still pre-season.
05:17But just across the street, the Packers are hard at work at the team's training facility,
05:23the Don Hudson Center.
05:27The Packers have won 13 NFL titles, more than any other team, and four Super Bowl trophies.
05:34Their former coach, Vince Lombardi, was so legendary in the 1960s, he became a model
05:40for all NFL coaches who followed.
05:43After his death from cancer in 1970, winners of every Super Bowl have been handed the Vince
05:48Lombardi trophy.
05:51Now, with Super Bowl MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers number 12, the Packers are poised
05:59for long-term success.
06:01It's the only sports team in the nation that's actually owned by its fans.
06:06There are currently more than 350,000 shareholders, although none of them receives a dividend.
06:12And the share price always remains the same.
06:20The strong community spirit that binds Green Bay Packers fans together today got its start
06:24just a few miles up the Fox River.
06:28In its early days as a trading post, Green Bay was on its own in the Wisconsin wilderness.
06:33Early settlers survived by building simple homes, like this one-room fur trader's cabin
06:39that dates from 1800.
06:42To help cope with the tough conditions, residents banded together and supported one another.
06:49Here at Green Bay's Heritage Hill State Park, a living history museum offers a glimpse of
06:55what that early community looked like.
06:58There was a simple church, a cheese factory, and officer's quarters.
07:04As their buildings grew in size, so too did the tight bonds of Green Bay's self-reliant
07:09community.
07:14Bonds that helped the pioneers work together to turn Wisconsin's forests into fields of
07:19plenty.
07:22The fields that are still being worked today are nearly 77,000 farms all across the state.
07:2999% of Wisconsin's farms are family-owned, including these colorful fields in the town
07:36of Cranmore, where one crop stands out like no other, cranberries.
07:46There are more cranberries grown in Wisconsin than any other state, which is why it's the
07:50state's official fruit.
07:53This tiny, tart fruit thrives in the sandy, marshy flatlands of central Wisconsin.
07:58For most of the year, cranberry fields look like those of any other crop.
08:03But when harvest time arrives in late September, growers flood their fields with 6 to 10 inches
08:08of water to make it easier to harvest the fruit.
08:13These cranberry cowboys, wearing waders instead of chaps, move the giant hoses from field
08:19to field.
08:20Once they're flooded, a special harvester removes the fruit from the vine.
08:26As it's towed through the water, rods on the back of the harvester whack and shake the
08:29plants, knocking the berries loose.
08:36A Wisconsin farmer invented this machine and named it the Ruby Slipper.
08:41For the fast but gentle way, it slips the red fruit from the vine.
08:46Inside every cranberry is a tiny pocket of air that makes the berries float in the water,
08:51which is why entire fields quickly turn blood red.
08:56Next, a tractor blows the berries away from the edge and pulls a long rubber boom into
09:03place behind them.
09:07Then the booms are reeled in, lassoing the fruit.
09:12They're pulled into a circle, and the result is a fruit-filled corral that looks like one
09:18big juicy cranberry from the air.
09:23To harvest the fruit, farmers tighten the boom, and then push the berries towards a
09:28conveyor belt.
09:31This self-feeding device draws the berries to its mouth and sucks them up to a separator
09:37unit where leaves and stems are removed.
09:41These fresh cranberries will be cleaned and graded, and then sent on to a processing plant
09:46where they'll be squeezed into juice or turned into sauces.
09:54Wisconsin's 2013 cranberry harvest was one for the history books.
09:59Growers shipped 5 million barrels, the largest crop on record worth $300 million.
10:10The mighty cranberry isn't the only farm product on Wisconsin's bountiful plate.
10:16From above, the vast array of this state's crops emblazon the landscape with mesmerizing
10:22patterns and shapes, like some giant's crazy quilt woven of edible yarns and threads.
10:30But as America's dairy land, Wisconsin is best known not for its stripes of green and
10:36gold, but for its spots of black and white, cows.
10:44This herd of Holsteins belongs to one of more than 11,000 dairy farms that blanket the state.
10:51Together, they produce almost 60 million gallons of milk a week, enough to fill up 12 Olympic-sized
10:58swimming pools every day.
11:03Most of that milk is shipped off to cheesemakers, including this one, the Silver Lewis Cheese
11:08Factory Co-op in Monticello, which is more than 100 years old.
11:13It's known for its Munster and Brick cheeses, just two of the more than 600 kinds of cheese
11:19made in Wisconsin.
11:26But long before cows here were king, and cranberries filled its fields, the land that's now Wisconsin
11:33was home to an ancient people left behind tantalizing evidence of mysterious and possibly
11:39even cannibalistic rituals.
11:51It's harvest time in Wisconsin, but just because the sun is setting here in Winnebago County
11:56doesn't mean the workday is done.
12:02Putting food on the nation's table is much more than a 9-to-5 job in this northern state.
12:09Wisconsin farmers work night and day to harvest the riches of their fertile soil.
12:15This harvester is gathering corn roughage, which includes the corn itself as well as
12:20the cob and the husks of the plants.
12:22It will be used as nutrient-rich feed for Wisconsin's dairy cows.
12:29But a single harvester like this one can fill up an entire trailer in just a few minutes.
12:35These days, harvesters are armed with GPS technology to help ensure the best and most
12:40efficient yields.
12:42Whenever the crops are ripe for picking, they light up Wisconsin's fields well into the
12:47night.
12:48But there was a time when the only night lights were the glows of fires of an ancient people.
12:58Their story is cloaked in mystery, but luckily, they left some fascinating evidence of their
13:04existence behind.
13:07Here on the banks of the Crawfish River in south-central Wisconsin, a strange apparition
13:13rises out of the earth, a massive ancient mound shaped like a flat-topped pyramid.
13:22A European settler stumbled upon this place back in 1835.
13:26It was given the name Aztalan by those who believed that it could only have been built
13:32by the Aztecs of far-off Mexico.
13:35But archaeologists digging here have since uncovered the real story.
13:41A thousand years ago, a large bustling town of 500 people sprawled across this broad plain.
13:49It was built not by the Aztecs, but by prehistoric Native Americans who were part of the Mississippian
13:55culture, which dates back more than a thousand years.
14:00They inhabited a vast stretch of land, all the way from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico.
14:09On this mound, a set of wide stairs climbed from a central plaza up two levels of platforms
14:15to where a chief's house or a temple once stood, in which a sacred flame was kept burning.
14:24The fortress walls likely mean the townspeople were actively at war.
14:28But the question is, with whom?
14:32Excavations within these walls have yielded some grisly finds, including burnt human bones
14:37in fire pits, which may be evidence of human sacrifice.
14:43They also uncover the remains of a young girl found buried with hundreds of clam shells
14:48from the far-off ocean.
14:50The people of Aztlan abandoned the site around 1300 and simply vanished.
14:57No one knows where they went or why.
15:03In their wake, other Native American tribes arrived in Wisconsin, and by the time the
15:09first European fur traders landed on the shores of Lake Superior, more than 20,000 Native
15:15Americans called Wisconsin home.
15:20One of the most powerful Indian tribes was the Ojibwe.
15:25They plied Wisconsin's waters in sleek, fast birchbark canoes, along the same shores
15:31that tour boats like the Superior Princess do today.
15:36The Ojibwe thrived here, in this magical world of water, sea caves, and weathered sandstone
15:43bluffs.
15:48This is the landscape of the Apostle Islands, a Wisconsin treasure.
15:53They lie off the northernmost tip of the state, in Lake Superior, a chain of 22 islands of
15:58all shapes and sizes.
16:01Today, 21 of them are part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
16:11This ferry is running between the mainland and Madeline Island, the largest and most
16:15developed of the Apostle Islands.
16:18It's a lifeline for residents living in the historic town of La Pointe.
16:24In 1659, French explorers landed here and established a fur trading post and a Catholic
16:29mission for the Native people.
16:32Today, La Pointe is a popular summer getaway spot, and the population jumps from 200 to
16:382,500 or more once warm weather arrives.
16:47Soon after La Pointe was founded, the demand for beaver fur in Europe skyrocketed.
16:54Wisconsin had plenty of beaver, and Indians willing to hunt them.
16:58But getting all that fur out to market was a much bigger challenge.
17:02That's why French traders chose a spot on the Mississippi River, on what's now Wisconsin's
17:07western border, for a massive new trading post.
17:14They named it Prairie du Chien, after a fox Indian chief called Prairie Dog.
17:21Hunters delivered furs to the post, then the pelts were loaded into large freight canoes
17:25and paddled out to market.
17:28The bustling river port was laid out along a grid of streets that's still visible today,
17:33and was the center of Wisconsin's booming fur trade for 150 years.
17:40In 1965, a flood swept through the old town, destroying most of the buildings, but not
17:46this one, Villa Louis.
17:50Built in 1871, this mansion was named after its builder, Louis Dousman, who financed it
17:56with a fur trading fortune earned by his father, Wisconsin's first millionaire, a man named
18:02Hercules Dousman.
18:06Today, Villa Louis is a popular spot to celebrate weddings and other special events.
18:19Part of this old boomtown's allure is that here, the Mississippi River can seem just
18:24as wild and peaceful as it was centuries ago.
18:29But it hasn't always been this way.
18:32Just 37 miles upstream lies the site of one of the most brutal events in America's westward
18:37expansion.
18:38It's known as the Bad Axe Massacre.
18:44In the early 1800s, as settlers started pushing into the land that's now Wisconsin and Illinois,
18:50the U.S. put more and more pressure on the region's native tribes to leave.
18:55Many were forced to give up their ancestral lands and were exiled across the Mississippi
18:59River to less desirable territory out west.
19:06But in the spring of 1832, about 1,000 Sauk and Fox Indians crossed back over the Mississippi
19:12River from the west.
19:15Their chief, Black Hawk, believed the treaty that forced them into exile was invalid.
19:21He and a large group of men, women, and children decided to travel through Wisconsin to peacefully
19:26reoccupy their homeland in what's now Illinois.
19:32But when white settlers saw Native Americans returning to reclaim their land, they panicked,
19:37fearing a hostile invasion.
19:41State militia and U.S. Army troops were quickly dispatched to pursue and attack Black Hawk
19:46and teach the Native Americans a lesson.
19:53On August 1st, the chief and his group reached the banks of the Mississippi River here, close
19:58to the mouth of the Bad Axe River.
20:00They set camp, planning to cross to safety the next day.
20:07But when they awoke, they found themselves in a deadly vice grip.
20:11From the east, 1,000 U.S. troops were storming down on them from these bluffs.
20:17The Indians camped below fled towards the Mississippi River, with the soldiers hot on
20:22their heels.
20:24In the water, many in Black Hawk's group quickly drowned.
20:28Those who could swim made for the river's western bank, but an Army gunboat named the
20:32Warrior was just offshore.
20:36Soldiers on board opened fire indiscriminately on the men, women, and children in the water.
20:44Some survivors tried to hide in groves of willow trees on the small islands that still
20:48dot this stretch of the Mississippi today.
20:52But the U.S. soldiers turned on them, too, and flushed them out with a bayonet charge.
20:58After the terrifying slaughter, 250 Native Americans were dead.
21:04Bodies floated in the water, and the Mississippi River ran red with blood.
21:10Black Hawk managed to make it out alive, but with his band decimated, the chief had no
21:15choice but to surrender.
21:23In the decades following the Bad Axe Massacre, waves of European immigrants came to settle
21:28the land that's now Wisconsin.
21:30They would soon transform the Wisconsin Territory into a state, and a small village between
21:37two lakes into its new, glimmering capital.
21:45Soar across the land of Wisconsin, and it's possible to imagine that you've been transported
21:51to Europe, especially here, in the picturesque village of New Glarus, which looks like a
21:57little slice of the Alps set down in the hills of southern Wisconsin.
22:03The town was founded in 1845 by immigrants from Glarus, Switzerland.
22:09Suffering from poverty at home, they came to America, hoping to start new, more prosperous
22:14lives.
22:16Today, the town's residents are proud of their Swiss heritage and traditions.
22:22Nearby, at the New Glarus Brewery, members of a yodelers' club come to bathe the valley
22:28with the sounds of traditional Swiss alphorns.
22:33These long horns were once used in Switzerland by farmers to communicate with each other
22:37across remote valleys.
22:39Today, these alphorns are blown just for fun, and to embrace the history of one European
22:45community that settled this state almost two centuries ago.
22:54By 1835, the flood of immigrants into places like New Glarus had pushed Wisconsin's population
23:00over the 10,000 mark, making it eligible to be declared a U.S. Territory by Congress.
23:07A sliver of land between Lakes Mendota and Monona was chosen as the site of the new territory's
23:13capital.
23:14It was named Madison, in honor of the recently deceased President James Madison.
23:20Ten years later, in 1848, Wisconsin became America's 30th state, and Madison its new
23:27state capital.
23:30By 1915, the dome of the new Wisconsin Statehouse stood 284 feet over town, just three feet
23:37less than the nation's capital in Washington, D.C.
23:42It was in these halls of government that a unique brand of public policy was launched
23:46in the early 1900s.
23:48The leader of the Progressive Movement, as it was called, was a fiery politician named
23:53Fighting Bob La Follette.
23:56A Wisconsin governor, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate, La Follette championed the rights
24:03of average citizens, while cutting the influence of big business and money on politics.
24:09The result was some of the first state laws on workers' compensation, child labor, and
24:14factory safety regulation.
24:19But in recent years, lawmakers have reversed Wisconsin's liberal legacy.
24:24In 2011, the state faced a significant budget shortfall.
24:29To close the deficit, Republican Governor Scott Walker pushed a bill that would take
24:33away public employees' rights to bargain collectively and limit pay raises, in addition
24:38to other union-busting measures.
24:42Democratic lawmakers tried to stall the vote, and nearly 100,000 demonstrators occupied
24:47the Capitol grounds.
24:49A local pizza shop delivered thousands of pies to the demonstrators, all paid for by
24:54their supporters around the world.
24:57In the end, Walker's bill succeeded, nudging the state to the political right.
25:03But political dissent is nothing new for Madison.
25:07Here at the University of Wisconsin, the beautiful lakeside campus is quiet today.
25:13But back in the late 1960s, at the height of the Vietnam War, it was a hotbed of anti-war
25:19fervor and student protests, including one that ended with a deadly act of terrorism.
25:27In 1970, four young anti-war activists met here at Madison's Nitty Gritty Bar.
25:33Over drinks, they plotted to bomb the Army Mathematics Research Center, which was housed
25:38nearby in the university's Sterling Hall.
25:42In the early morning hours of August 24th, the bombers, who were all between 18 and 22
25:47years old, parked a van filled with fertilizer, fuel, and dynamite outside Sterling Hall.
25:54The massive blast that followed ripped through the building, sent a ball of fire into the
25:58sky, and killed a young researcher inside.
26:02When investigators arrived, a fragment of the engine was all that remained of the van
26:06that held the bomb.
26:09An FBI manhunt caught three of the bombers, but the fourth, Leo Burt, is still at large.
26:16He's managed to elude federal authorities for more than 45 years.
26:20The Sterling Hall bombing remained the worst act of domestic terrorism in America until
26:25the Oklahoma City bombing 25 years later.
26:33Political engagement still runs deep on campus, but it's not the only thing consuming students' time.
26:40Many of them are busy milking cows and making cheese.
26:44We're at the University Dairy Barn, part of the high-tech Center for Dairy Research
26:49in Babcock Hall.
26:53On fall Saturdays, it's a safe bet you can find a high percentage of the student body
26:57here in the bleachers of Camp Randall Stadium, home field of the Badgers football team.
27:05These massive stands can seat 80,321 fervent fans, making Camp Randall the fifth-largest
27:12stadium in college football.
27:18But not all famous schools in Wisconsin take up an entire town.
27:22Two of the most famous are just one-room schoolhouses.
27:26One of them lies in Watertown, 40 miles east of Madison.
27:31In 1856, a German immigrant and mom named Margarita Schurz started a home school for
27:37her daughter and nieces.
27:40When other kids in town joined it, too, Schurz opened a preschool in this simple white schoolhouse.
27:45She called it a Kindergarten, a German word for children's garden.
27:50Today, thanks to Schurz, Kindergarten is a household name across the country.
27:59Her school is almost identical to another famous little Wisconsin schoolhouse.
28:04This one, in the town of Ripon, is where the Republican Party got its start back in 1854.
28:10At the time, liberal-minded citizens of Ripon were outraged to learn that a new bill in
28:15the U.S. Congress could extend slavery into the western territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
28:21So one night, dozens of residents crowded into Ripon's one-room schoolhouse and voted
28:27overwhelmingly to form a new anti-slavery party.
28:31They decided to name it the Republican Party.
28:39The political arena is not the only place where radical ideas have been successfully
28:43hatched in Wisconsin.
28:46Just over a century ago, two boyhood pals from Milwaukee got together to build a motorized
28:51bicycle and ended up creating one of America's most iconic brands.
29:11When October arrives in central Wisconsin, crisp air, fall colors, and the open road
29:17beckon to all.
29:20But for some, there's only one way to take it in.
29:26On the state's homegrown hog, a Harley.
29:30With the wind whipping past, and a few friends along for the ride.
29:39For these Harley-Davidson lovers, and many others like them around the world, their bikes
29:43are a way of life.
29:45One that got its start right here on Wisconsin's back roads more than a century ago.
29:59It all started back in 1903.
30:04Two Wisconsin friends, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, both 22 years old at the
30:08time, decided to build a motorized bicycle in the Davidson family's backyard.
30:14Their first bike was a racer, and immediately started to sell.
30:19They painted the name, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, on the door of their one-room
30:24workshop.
30:26Today, the headquarters for Harley-Davidson still stands where the company's first factory
30:32was built in 1906, a year the fledgling manufacturer made 50 motorbikes.
30:40The powerful, elegantly simple bikes quickly caught on, and by 1920, Harley-Davidson was
30:47the largest motorcycle producer in the world, turning out 28,000 bikes that year alone.
30:55Today, Harley-Davidson's are made in factories scattered across the Midwest, but Milwaukee
31:03remains home base for this iconic brand.
31:08Milwaukee Harbor lies at the confluence of three rivers, the Milwaukee, the Menominee,
31:13and the Kinnickinnick, that all empty into Lake Michigan, one of America's greatest
31:17inland ports.
31:21In the early 1800s, settlers saw the great potential of this port for trade.
31:26They knew that whoever controlled access to the rivers would be rich.
31:33By the 1830s, the present-day city was home to three rival settlements.
31:38In the north, Junotown, started by Solomon Junot.
31:43In the west, Kilbourne Town, founded by Byron Kilbourne.
31:47And in the south, Walker's Point, started by George Walker.
31:53Each man wanted his own settlement to be the hub for the lucrative and increasingly busy
31:56trade at Milwaukee's port.
31:59The competition between the three communities grew so intense that open fighting broke out
32:03in 1845, in what's now famously known as Milwaukee's Bridge War.
32:11The first flashpoint was here, where the Junot Avenue Bridge now stands.
32:16In 1840, the territorial legislature ordered a bridge to be built here, linking Junotown
32:21and Kilbourne Town.
32:23The two communities bickered over construction costs, until in 1845, angry residents of Kilbourne
32:29Town tore down part of the new bridge in protest.
32:33In return, residents in Junotown aimed a cannon across the river at Byron Kilbourne's own
32:39house and threatened to shell it.
32:42In the following weeks, two more bridges over the Milwaukee River were destroyed by mobs.
32:51But luckily, cooler heads finally prevailed.
32:55In 1846, residents of the three separate towns voted to put aside their differences and build
33:00one great city, called Milwaukee, named for an Algonquin Indian word that means gathering
33:07place by the water.
33:09It's still possible to see evidence of the rivalry between Milwaukee's original founders
33:14from the air.
33:16Back in the early 1800s, each of those settlements designed their own individual street plans.
33:22Which is why today, when the city's streets reach the bridges, they often have to make
33:27a slight bend to meet up with a corresponding street on the other side.
33:33During Milwaukee's first 50 years, German immigrants flooded into the city, and by 1880,
33:3927% of its population was German-born, the highest concentration of any one immigrant
33:45group in an American city.
33:48And Germans felt right at home.
33:50There were German newspapers, music societies, restaurants, and beer gardens, serving locally
33:55brewed German beer.
33:58In its heyday in the late 1800s, Milwaukee was America's beer capital, home to many of
34:06the nation's biggest breweries.
34:08One of the first was Pabst, started in 1844.
34:13After winning numerous awards, the brewery began tying blue ribbons around the necks
34:17of its bottles, which inspired its most famous brand, Pabst Blue Ribbon.
34:24During Prohibition, Pabst turned to making cheese, but went back to beer when Prohibition
34:29ended.
34:30In 1977, the brewery produced 18 million barrels.
34:36Pabst is no longer brewed here in Milwaukee, but one of Milwaukee's oldest beer makers
34:41is still going strong.
34:45Miller Brewing got its start here more than 160 years ago.
34:50The story goes that Frederick Miller, the company's founder, arrived in Milwaukee from
34:54Germany with special brewer's yeast stuffed into his pockets.
34:59In 1855, Miller bought the Plank Road Brewery and turned it into Miller Brewing.
35:05The company's original building still stands, but is now dwarfed by the modern plant that
35:10surrounds it.
35:13Nearby, in Miller's distribution center, more than 3 billion bottles of beer are loaded
35:21up and shipped out each year across the country.
35:24But some of it stays right here in town, for fans at nearby Miller Park.
35:30It's the home of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club.
35:33The 42,000 seat stadium can keep teams playing no matter what the weather, thanks to a high
35:39tech fan shaped steel roof.
35:42It's made up of five movable panels.
35:44They slide open and closed on a rail system that's mounted atop the stadium's walls.
35:49When the rain comes, it takes just 10 minutes for the roof to close.
35:56Nearby, there's another modern landmark that adapts to the weather.
36:03On the shore of Lake Michigan stands the Milwaukee Art Museum.
36:08This dramatic quadrachi pavilion, built in 2001, was designed by Santiago Calatrava,
36:14a Spanish architect and engineer known for his bridges and train stations in Europe.
36:20Since the site lies next to Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's bustling port, Calatrava decided
36:25to design the museum's entrance to look like the prow of a ship.
36:30And soaring above are 72 movable steel fins that act as a giant sunscreen for the museum.
36:38Sensors on the fins monitor wind speed.
36:41And when the wind blows too strongly, the fins automatically fold up for safety.
36:54Come autumn, Wisconsin's great north woods are transformed into a scenic wonderland that's
37:01best appreciated either from high above or from right down below.
37:09Every year, tourists spend more than a billion dollars here for a chance to set eyes on this
37:14brilliant short-lived display of red, yellow, and orange.
37:21But there was a time when there was nothing here but clear-cut for as far as the eye could
37:26see.
37:29It all started in the 1830s, when timber companies began cutting down Wisconsin's towering forests
37:35of white pine.
37:38As cities and towns rose across the Midwest, Wisconsin's forests fell to the axe.
37:44By 1900, nearly 20 million acres of forest land had been stripped clean.
37:50The ancient trees were gone forever, but new growth started to replace them.
37:58These fall colors come from a wide range of tree species that now stand where ancient
38:03forests of white pine once did.
38:07Wisconsin's forests are now managed for their long-term health and productivity instead
38:11of for quick profits.
38:13One of those stewards is the Menominee Indian Tribe, which looks after nearly a quarter
38:18of a million acres of Wisconsin forest.
38:21Their guiding principle is that the tribe's future depends on these trees.
38:27That's why the Menominee harvest timber at a sustainable rate, so they can leave plenty
38:31for the future.
38:35Cut timber is trucked to the tribal sawmill, which provides good-paying jobs, employing
38:40nearly half of those who work on the Menominee Indian Tribe's reservation.
38:45The Menominee have been such good stewards of the land that today, there is more timber
38:50standing in the tribe's forest than when they started logging back in 1854.
38:59For the Menominee, the region's forests have always been at the heart of who they are as
39:03a people.
39:04And that's the case today for many Wisconsinites.
39:07Their state's lush natural beauty has always exerted a strong pull.
39:13Many find comfort and solace in its wild places.
39:19Others find inspiration, like one of the world's most visionary architects, who was inspired
39:26by Wisconsin's natural beauty to build one of the most famous and admired houses in America.
39:33It's known as Taliesin, a Welsh word that means shining brow, for its position on the
39:39edge of a hill overlooking the valley.
39:42This was the home and workshop of Frank Lloyd Wright for 48 years, until his death in 1959.
39:50Wright, a Wisconsin native, built Taliesin in 1911 as a country home for him and his
39:56mistress Martha Borthwick.
39:59He also wanted it to be a laboratory for his ideas, many of which were inspired by the
40:03landscape surrounding the house.
40:06Taliesin is filled with beautiful design touches and bold experiments, like this cantilevered
40:13walkway that appears to float on thin air.
40:21But what Wright had imagined as a peaceful haven suddenly turned into a house of horrors
40:26on August 15, 1914.
40:29Wright was out of town when his butler, Julian Carlton, who knew he was soon to be laid off,
40:35decided to take revenge.
40:38As a group of employees gathered in the dining room for lunch, Carlton locked the dining
40:42room doors, doused that wing of the house with gasoline, and set it ablaze.
40:48He then walked to an adjoining porch, where Martha and her two young children were sitting,
40:53and killed all three of them with an axe.
40:57As the fire grew, six of the employees escaped by climbing out the dining room windows, only
41:03to find the killer waiting for them in the yard.
41:06Four were cut down.
41:08The other two managed to escape.
41:13When Frank Lloyd Wright returned to Taliesin, he was devastated.
41:17But he vowed to rebuild the house in the memory of his murdered love.
41:21But in 1925, the second Taliesin also burned to the ground, and Wright vowed once again
41:28to rebuild it on top of the ashes.
41:31Today, his third and final Taliesin is now a museum and education center.
41:43Frank Lloyd Wright sought peace and inspiration in central Wisconsin, just as thousands of
41:48others do each year at a place called The Dells.
41:53It's a 50-mile stretch of the Wisconsin River that's home to a famous series of 150-foot-high
41:59bluffs carved by wind, water, and weather.
42:05This scenic gorge was formed during the last ice age, roughly 10,000 years ago, when a
42:10giant dam of ice burst, unleashing a flood that raced through and scoured the walls of
42:15this valley.
42:20Wisconsin is a state defined by water.
42:23From the Mississippi River that flows along its western border, to Lake Superior and its
42:29Apostle Islands, to the thousands of lakes and streams that cover this state, but there's
42:35nothing in Wisconsin quite like this, a finger of land surrounded by water that remains one
42:43of the most remote and beautiful places in the nation.
42:48It's called the Door Peninsula, and stretches out 82 miles northeast from Green Bay, like
42:54the jagged blade of a knife reaching right up to the Michigan border.
43:03Once ships carrying Wisconsin timber had to travel all the way around the peninsula to
43:08bring that timber to ports like Chicago and Detroit.
43:12It was such a dangerous passage, it was known as Death's Door, which was how the Door
43:18Peninsula got its name.
43:20Over the centuries, hundreds of vessels shipped wrecked in these shoal-filled waters.
43:30But in the 1870s, businessmen dug a giant canal across the Door Peninsula to shorten
43:36the route to Green Bay from Lake Michigan.
43:40Today it's managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and is home to one of the last great industries
43:45still in operation on the Great Lakes, the Bay Shipbuilding Company in the town of Sturgeon
43:51Bay.
43:52Here, highly skilled crews are kept busy repairing and building vessels of all sizes.
43:59When their shifts end, the workers head home, to life in one of the most idyllic spots in
44:04the U.S.
44:08Etched by a rocky and weather-beaten coastline on three sides, the Door Peninsula seems magically
44:14removed from the rest of the world.
44:18Thinning to less than two miles at its northern tip, it's full of old farms, wineries, and
44:23golden fields of wheat.
44:27But the threats to ships on Lake Michigan are still very real, which is why the peninsula
44:31is home to a magnificent collection of historic lighthouses, eleven in all.
44:37They're strung like bright pearls around its neck.
44:43One of the most dramatic is this one.
44:46The Kena Island Lighthouse soars over the eastern side of the peninsula, and is one
44:51of the most recognized landmarks in all of Wisconsin.
44:55First lit in 1870, Kena Island Light still serves as a navigational aid, though its antique
45:02glass lens is now automated and computer controlled.
45:06Today, the lighthouse also serves a new purpose.
45:10Known to the public, its beauty attracts visitors like moths to a flame.
45:15They climb its steep steps for a chance to look out over the third-largest of America's
45:19Great Lakes.
45:21And in that way, it's the perfect symbol for Wisconsin, the land where the best of
45:28old and new, of city and wilderness freely mix, to come out shining brighter than before.
45:40♪♪♪