The Land Use History of Waukesha
Waukesha is located just West of Milwaukee, the name most likely means "little fox" in native tongue. By the time European settlers had made their way to the area, it was the Potawatomi peoples who occupied the land. Waukesha county was once home to hundreds of native burial mounds, many of which have been lost to time. Many of these mounds were hundreds of feet in length, depicting turtles, lizards, panthers and the like. They cultivated "the three sisters" among other crops. They fished and hunted the land and water. Europeans first came to the area in 1804. Wheat and timber were very important industries for the area, and were helped by the numerous waterways which crisscross the land. By the time of the civil war, soil degradation and labor shortage forced wheat farmers to look for alternative activities. Many settled on dairy farming. Following the connection to the Milwaukee and Mississippi railroad, agricultural output as well as tourism boomed. Perhaps the first Euro-American business enterprise outside of farming was the spring water. The water was nationally recognized for it's healing qualities. Wealthy tourists came from neighboring states to stay in many lakeside resorts. The land was advertised as "lake country". Eventually demand lead to overexploitation, culminating in widespread radium contamination in the municipal water supply. In the 1800's Waukesha prospered with the operation of flour mills and iron foundries. As agriculture declined in the area, industry picked up. Many foundries and machine shops took to operation by the early 1900's.
How has industry impacted the ecology? Early reports write about the stunning beauty of the area. The dense forests broken up with the "meadow-like" prairies, the wetland, and oak groves. There is no more prairie, and some woodland and wetland remain, but far below settlement levels. Urban development currently threatens much of the natural area remaining. Over-pumping of water is still an issue, almost a hundred years later.
Sources:
https://www.waukeshacounty.gov/landuseenvironment
https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/waukesha-county/
Wisconsin Historical Society
This history was a great read! It is so cool to learn about Waukesha as I have heard of it a lot and hearing about its specific land use and individual history helps me to get a better grasp of Wisconsin History as a whole. I thought your explanation of the industries and how settlers would change industry as resources ran dry was very interesting as it reflects the textbook and gives a real city-specific example of how this practice of finding new areas to industrialize affected the surrounding environment.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Waukesha County so this was super interesting to learn about. I've never really heard about what Waukesha county looked like before urban development. Around my house, there are lots of marshes surrounding my city. I'm curious to know how these have changed throughout history and how it affects the city as a whole.
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ReplyDeleteThis course has introduced me to so many natural wonders I wish still existed, and now you've added to it with bringing to my attention these native burial mounds in Waukesha where I lived briefly. Its unfortunate that these no longer exist, but it would be amazing to see if we could use modern ground imaging technology to find them and allow these grounds to be returned to native peoples or if there would be an effort to set aside ground for native peoples to have these once again
ReplyDeleteVery interesting that over the years the soil degradation was the reason for a transition in economic endeavors. Maybe the mass soil degradation was partially due to the over-exploitation that we spoke about in lecture this week.
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