Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2025 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

Occasionally when selecting articles for WMH, we find a theme emerges that ties an issue together. In this case, an excerpt from a new book publication, a deeper look at a Vietnam-era collection, and an exploration of a historical moment that is relevant to current events all link to a topic that echoes through many generations: war. The book excerpt, from Mark Van Ells’s Red Arrow Across the Pacific, describes the first days of fighting for members of the Thirty-Second Infantry Division during World War II. Their baptism by fire at the battle of Buna pitted newly trained soldiers from Wisconsin and Michigan against seasoned Japanese troops in constant, close-quarters combat. For these young men, “the realities of combat came as a deep, injurious shock—philosophically, morally, and psychologically.” As Van…

On a typical February morning, the temperature in Hayward, Wisconsin, is well below freezing, the nearby lakes have twenty or more inches of clear, hard ice—enough to support villages of anglers—and the snow is snowshoe-worthy deep. But when late February arrives, this quiet North Woods outpost transforms into a winter sports mecca. For one week each winter, legions of people from almost every state and twenty or more foreign lands descend upon Hayward for a Nordic cross-country skiing tradition called the American Birkebeiner. In cross-country, skiers go down and up the hills (and, of course, over flat and rolling land)—unlike downhill, or alpine, skiing with its mechanized assist via chairlifts. This small city of twenty-five hundred people rolls out a snow-white carpet for more than thirteen thousand people skiing in…

In the summer of 1868, the first train of the West Wisconsin Railroad pulled into the crude depot at Tomah, Wisconsin.1 A rural town of several hundred inhabitants, Tomah aspired to become a center of trade and transportation for the nearby cranberry farms and lumber mills. Ambitious farmers and traders, eager to tap the resources of central Wisconsin, had built simple homesteads on the fertile land along the Lemonweir River. As one local historian recounted, “Buildings went up as if by magic, and the spot which had so lately echoed to no tread … became alive with busy people.” Eager for connection to the markets of nearby cities, “the enterprising citizens of Tomah, in view of the advantages of increased travel,” committed to purchase a large amount of stock in…

In the spring of 1907, John Krubsack, a farmer and the president of Embarrass State Bank in Waupaca County, planted thirty-two box elder saplings. While Krubsack was known to landscape his property, the result of this planting would be something altogether unique. When the saplings reached a height of six feet the following year, Krubsack began to train the trees to form the shape of a chair. He bent and tied the stems together, causing them to graft to one another and slowly form arms, legs, and a back. For the next few years, he largely let nature take its course, though he took steps to maintain even growth among the trees. In 1912, he cut the trunks of all but the four trees that formed the legs of the…

The first thing Paul Cox did in 1969 after enlisting in the US Marines was visit the local library in Oceanside, California, and locate Vietnam on a large revolving globe. Like many enlistees, he knew next to nothing about the country or why the US was waging war there, but he was patriotic and eager to serve. Cox became a squad leader in Bravo Company, First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, and spent most of his time in Quang Nam Province, where he witnessed what he calls “my own My Lai, on a smaller but no less barbaric scale.”1 Upon entering a rural village, Cox’s point squad gunned down fifteen unarmed civilians, including women, children, and an elderly man, in an unprovoked attack. No Viet Cong had been sighted. Worse yet,…

The following excerpt is from Red Arrow Across the Pacific: The Thirty-Second Infantry Division During World War II, released in fall 2024 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Mark D. Van Ells reveals the long-overdue story of the Thirty-Second “Red Arrow” Infantry Division, made up of national guardsmen from Wisconsin and Michigan, which eventually logged more combat hours than any other US Army division in World War II. Drawing on letters, memoirs, and interviews, Van Ells lets soldiers speak for themselves, describing the many ways war in the Pacific arena profoundly shaped them. This excerpt highlights the first foray into combat by Red Arrowmen during the brutal battle of Buna in Papua New Guinea. On November 14, 1942, General MacArthur ordered his soldiers forward to attack the Japanese. Two full…

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25 YEARS AGO | 2000 Nature triggers an endless cascade of physical sensations, memories, feelings, and other mental events that rain down upon us. Standing on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, we assume that we see “nature.” But if we look more closely, we discover that all we actually experience is impressions of colors, shapes, sounds, smells, and the memories, fears, speculations, and other mental reactions to which they give birth…. With our thoughts, we create the world. Michael Edmonds, “Flights of Fancy: Birds and People in the Old Northwest,” vol. 83, no. 3, Spring 2000 50 YEARS AGO | 1975 The impulse to dance is as old as civilization. Throughout history people have moved rhythmically to the beat of a drum, the clapping of hands, or perhaps to the…