Madison the Idea

Think back one hundred fifty years. The United States was a growing country with vast areas yet unknown. People were moving from industrial centers in the East to places West, seeking a new life and a space to call their own.

Standing where you are now at that moment in the past, only a small cabin would have stood here. This was a resting place on the long trip from the water ways of the Great Lakes to ore laden earth in the Southwest of Wisconsin. Native tribes and white settlers hunted and farmed the area called the Four Lakes Region.

It wasn't until November 28, 1836, that Madison went from being an idea in the mind of James Duane Doty, to being what was to become the capital of Wisconsin. Doty, a politician and pioneer promoter, played a high stakes game of political lobbying to speculate the land and convinced others that the area should become the state capital.

Existing only on paper the city began with the capitol building at its center at a point between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, on an isthmus. Roads radiated from this point, named after the signers of the Constitution.
From this starting point Madison has grown to what it is today.

Site - King St

Challenge - sell an idea

Media - photo of Doty or early map of Madison