Madison
Madison is well-known as a metropolitan area that embraces bicycling. The city has been recognized as a platinum “Bicycle Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists, and some of its suburbs have earned high distinctions as well. The metropolitan area contains over 200 miles of heavily used bike path, a few of which connect to regional trails. Some trails travel from suburban communities into the city center, and are used primarily by commuters biking to work. Others journey through natural areas and offer outstanding views of the landscape and wildlife. In many cases, restaurants, cafes, and breweries have sprung up near bike paths. Because of the high volume of trail-users, cyclists should pay attention to posted rules and practice safe biking.
The area of present-day Madison was home to Native Americans for centuries. In fact, many prehistoric burial mounds of indigenous people are still found there. Most recently, members of the Ho-Chunk nation resided by the four lakes. Many were removed to western reservations by the U.S. Government in the 1820s.
The modern city’s origins start in 1829, when former federal judge James Duane Doty purchased over a thousand acres of land on an isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona. He intended to build a city called “Four Lakes,” which would serve as the capital of the terrritory of Wisconsin. When the territory was created in 1836, the legislature met in Belmont, Wisconsin. One of their first tasks was to select a permanent location for the capital. Doty lobbied for Madison, offering buffalo robes to legislators during the bitterly cold winter, and promising them premium city lots at discount prices.
Doty named his city for James Madison, the fourth President of the U.S., who had died in 1836. Doty also named the streets in honor of the signers of the U.S. Constitution. In November of 1836, the territorial legislature voted to make Madison its capital. Construction of the capitol building began in 1837, and the legislature first met there in 1838. Madison was incorporated as a village in 1846 and as a city in 1856. Wisconsin became a state in 1848, and Madison continued as the site of the capital. In 1848, the University of Wisconsin was established on the city’s western edge. While Bascom Hall is an emblematic campus structure, North Hall is actually its first building, completed in 1851.
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