Before we go about dumping a flag that was officially adopted 103 years ago and incorporates a seal that dates back to 1851 and Wisconsin’s first governor, Nelson Dewey, let’s think about what Isthmus proposes in a recent cover story (“Wisconsin Deserves a Better Flag,” 6/9/2016).
The current flag may be “busy,” as some have said, but it displays the story of what made Wisconsin a great state — the farmers and workers whose hard work and struggles have become the very character of Wisconsin.
Take, for example, the badger that lies across the top of the great seal of Wisconsin. It’s there not because the state is a haven for the animal (it isn’t), but because it represents the miners who came to the state before the 1830s to extract lead from the hills of southwest Wisconsin. During the lead-mining boom in pre-territorial days, the miners were so busy extracting the “gray gold” they had no time to build houses, according to the Wisconsin Blue Book. Like badgers, then, they found shelter by moving into abandoned mine shafts and makeshift burrows to find shelter.
The hardscrabble industry of those miners truly represents the historical industry of Wisconsin citizens. Isn’t that a good reason not to wipe the badger off the flag?
Look at the two men flanking the shield of the seal: the miner on the right and the sailor on the left. Both represent workers who were instrumental in our earliest history, the miner for being among the earliest entrepreneurs, and the sailor for bringing our first citizens here at a time when water transportation was often the best option for travel.
Consider, too, the tools of labor that are contained in the shield: a plow symbolizing agriculture, a pick and shovel indicating mining, the arm and hammer representing manufacturing, and the anchor for water transportation along the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes.
All four symbols tell us how Wisconsin developed as a state: the early mining industry, our continuing role as an agricultural state, our tremendous industries (we still have the second-highest percentage of workers in manufacturing among all states) and the value of water transportation so vital in the early decades of our history.
The state was settled by industrious men and women and their families, who struggled through tough Wisconsin winters and hot and humid summers to clear land of trees and rocks. Many were immigrants from Germany and the Scandinavian countries, with some facing failure as they found the land often too difficult to farm, while others thrived. They largely chose dairy farming — not the easiest type of agriculture — and Wisconsin became “the Dairy State.”
Even today the state continues to be one of the nation’s greatest producers of milk and milk products (particularly cheese), thanks to the heritage of these early Wisconsin farmers. Wisconsin’s central valley is one of the nation’s largest producers of vegetables. Yes, agriculture is still very much the story of Wisconsin.
With the flag’s emphasis on celebrating our agriculture and our industries, it is also recognizing working people and their families. Workers were at the forefront, too, of the many positive developments of the state — our great university system and strong educational values; historic firsts in worker rights (in recent years some having been unfortunately eroded); and close attention to conservation values that recognize how important it is to retain the natural beauties of the state. Workers through their strong labor unions and political party activity helped to make the state a great place to live and work.
We appreciate that Isthmus has called attention to our state flag; we understand their desire to perhaps “modernize” our flag.
We ask you, however, to move slowly on changing this 103-year-old symbol of our state. It represents far too much of our history to be cast aside by some stylistic, though possibly more artistic, new flag that neglects the hard work and vision of our ancestors.
Kenneth A. Germanson is president emeritus of the Wisconsin Labor History Society.
