The landscape of Wisconsin shaped by the glaciation of the Ice Age is the perfect land for dairy farming. The rolling hills and rich land shaped the agricultural geography to what it is today. With the rich pastures left after logging, farmers first focused on farming wheat, hops, and other grains, similar to the crops grown in their homelands. Then of course dairy farming followed. With the access milk produced, farmers made and sold various cheeses, most in the styles of their homelands. It become very apparent which region of Wisconsin you were in based on the type of cheese mostly produced there. Based on evidence gathered in the book Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Volume XLII, the section of entitled “The Cheese Manufacturing Regions of Wisconsin, 1850-1950” illustrated a map indicating locations of cheese factories in 1896, when the cheese regions of Wisconsin were beginning to take shape [Reference Map #1]. An exact number of factories per county were found for 1896. Map #6, which I created also serves as an indicator as to where these cheese regions would have been.



With this information stated in the article and based off of Map #1, I created Map #2, which highlights the regions of cheese manufacturing in Wisconsin, labeled them based off of what types of cheese that was mostly produced there. In the white circles are indicators of how many cheese factories were recorded to be operating at that time in that designated area. One can begin to conclude that due to the pattern of immigration, and with facts found in Map # 2 and #6, cheese making was generally contained to the south, and southeast portions of Wisconsin.



Based on records kept by the state, dating back as far as 1880, Map #5 came about, indicating the number of cheese factories per county. The counties with the highest number of factories generally corresponds with the regions indicated in the article titled “The Cheese Manufacturing Regions of Wisconsin, 1850-1950”, with counties like Dodge, with 26, and Green with 31 factories, becoming the epicenters of cheese making in the state. The regions described in this article were already beginning to take shape as early as 1880. Total exports of cheese per year were on the rise, with 1979 producing 129.6 million pounds of cheese. Though some years recorded a slight decrease in cheese production, the overall trend since the beginning days of the cheese factories has been positive.



While referencing very detailed charts kept by the state, the number of cheese factories and the total export of cheese per year grew together at an equal pace. It wasn’t until 1924 that the number of factories began to decrease, but after a small decrease in 1927-1929, the total export of cheese kept rising and has reached a staggering 2.6 billion pounds per year. One can conclude that during the mid 1920s, the growth rate of the factories plateaued. There was no longer a need for more factories to produce more cheese. With advances in technology, factories could produce more cheese than before while still keeping costs competitive and low. Factories either began to merge, consolidate to one location, or in cases where there was a significant excess of factories, some merely closed or were bought out by a larger, more prosperous factories.



By 1926, there were cheese factories in all but three counties in the state, indicated in Map #7. Counties such as Dodge, with 152 factories, and Green with 143, began to see a decrease for the first time in their number of factories. The cheese industry in Wisconsin was taking off, becoming more cost effective, and was reaching all corners of the state, while the number of factories was beginning to fall.

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Map #3 is also an illustration from “The Cheese Manufacturing Regions of Wisconsin, 1850-1950” article , but depicts the locations of the factories in 1949, after the decline in number of factories across Wisconsin. Based on available statistics, Map #4 was created to show just how big of a decrease in factory population compared to 1900 there actually was, strictly in the regions described in the article. Areas such as the southwest may have seen an increase in the number of factories, mostly due to the larger population of people then present in the area, but the extreme southeast did lose a significant number of factories, originally with 72 factories, down to 2. Wisconsin reached its cheese factory capacity long ago, but now, the production of cheese in the state has reached an epic high. Feel free to read further in the “Present” section of the site in order to see just how developed Wisconsin’s cheese manufacturing has become.