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Manufacturing, beginning with the small-scale processing of local raw materials, turned largely to metal fabrication and grew phenomenally in the southeast as population increased and markets expanded. Throughout the rest of the century, there was a gradual transition from a rural to a predominantly urban society, and by 1980 about two-thirds of the population was urban. Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector continued to flourish at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century as the state became one of the top exporters of goods in the country. The number of dairy farms has continued to decline because fewer young people are entering the industry; however, some rural communities experienced population increases of more than 300 percent, primarily as a result of Mexican immigrants who had come to work on large dairy farms and in meatpacking and manufacturing plants in small Wisconsin towns.
Robert W. Finley Ingolf K. Vogeler