The first European to visit the region, French explorer Jean Nicolet, leads an expedition ashore near Green Bay.

Roman Catholic missionaries established the mission of St. Ignace de Michilimackinac, at Mackinac (now Michigan). The mission was the center for traders going to and from what is now Wisconsin.

Following the Treaty of Paris, the United States takes ownership of the Wisconsin Region.

Wisconsin officially became part of the U.S. Northwest Territory, but British fur traders effectively controlled the region until 1816.

The establishment of Fort Howard at Green Bay and Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien opens the region to settlement.

The Wisconsin area was included in the Michigan Territory. The territorial governor of Michigan created the first two Wisconsin counties, Brown and Crawford.

High prices for lead attracted settlers to the mines of southern Wisconsin. The Michigan 1820 census lists residents of what is now Wisconsin.

Heavy settlement began along the Lake Michigan shoreline at the sites of present-day Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha. The Michigan Territory 1830 Federal Census lists residents of what is now Wisconsin.

The Black Hawk War ended the last serious Indian threat to white settlements.

The discovery of lead results in the creation of the Territory of Wisconsin, which included lands west of the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. Much of the western portion was later transferred to the Iowa Territory, created in 1838. See Lead Mines on the Mississippi, (320kb map)

Many foreigners arrived from Germany and New York.

Wisconsin becomes the nation's 30th state.

Over 90,000 men from Wisconsin served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.

Wisconsin becomes the first state to pass an unemployment compensation act.