Iron County Wisconsin Heritage Festival
Wisconsin celebrated its Sesquicentennial, 150th Birthday, in 1998. Iron County played a significant role in establishing Wisconsin’s place in national and international trade history.
The beaver hat rage in Europe opened up international trade routes in the county as early as the 1600s. Later iron ore mined in the region fed the growing automobile industry. Iron County’s unique history is, as the title of the 1993 Centennial Book reads, “Rooted in Resources”— Not only the resources found in the iron ore mines and lush forests but in the people who settled the region, opening up Wisconsin’s Northwoods for the future.
