Wisconsin

The ice cream sundae was invented in Wisconsin because selling soda on Sundays was against the rules. In 1881, a druggist in Two Rivers named Ed Berners poured chocolate syrup over vanilla ice cream as a workaround. Customers loved it, and the treat spread across the country.

Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi peoples lived here for thousands of years. They built effigy mounds shaped like animals for burials, hunted and fished the rivers and forests, and ran trade networks that reached the Atlantic and the Gulf coasts.

French explorer Jean Nicolet arrived in 1634, paddling into Green Bay looking for a route to Asia. He didn't find one, but he did kick off 150 years of fur trading between Europeans and Native peoples.

In 1832, Sauk leader Black Hawk led about 1,200 men, women, and children back across the Mississippi to reclaim their homeland. The U.S. Army crushed them. After Black Hawk's defeat, the government pressured the Ho-Chunk, Sauk, Potawatomi, and other tribes into giving up their land and leaving.

Wisconsin became the 30th state in 1848. Waves of German, Norwegian, Polish, and Irish immigrants arrived to farm, mine lead, and work in lumber camps. Milwaukee's German community turned the city into one of America's great brewing capitals.

During the Civil War, Wisconsin sent over 90,000 troops to fight for the Union. In the early 1900s, Governor Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette pushed reforms that cracked down on corruption and gave more power to ordinary voters.

Cheer on the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field (the waiting list for season tickets is over 100,000 names long), and kayak the sea caves along the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. Try fresh cheese curds that squeak when you bite them, and grab a bratwurst in Sheboygan, the self-proclaimed bratwurst capital of the world.