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"Why the "Badger" State?
--In the early lead-mining days in Southwestern Wisconsin, the miners from Southern Illinois and farther south returned home every winter and came back to the diggings in the spring, thus imitating the migrations of the fish popularly called the "sucker," in the Rock, Illinois, and other south-flowing rivers of the region. For this reason, the south-winterers were jocosely called "Suckers," and Illinois became known as "The Sucker State." On the other hand, lead-miners from the Eastern States were unable to return home every winter, and at first lived in rude dug-outs-burrowing into the hillsides after the fashion of the badger (Taxidea americana). These men were the first permanent settlers in the mines north of the Illinois line; and thus Wisconsin, In later days, became dubbed "The Badger State." Contrary to general belief, the badger itself is not frequently found in Wisconsin."
The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin. Compiled and Published Under the Direction of Halford Erickson, Commissioner of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1903. 17 - 20.
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