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Wisconsin
Wisconsin is known as America’s Dairyland. Much of the state is a rolling plain that is good for dairy farming and growing crops. In southern Wisconsin, you’ll see herds of dairy (milk) cows grazing in pastures. Much of the state’s milk is turned into cheese and butter.
CHEESE CAPITAL
Wisconsin is known for making cheese. It produces more cheese than any other state in the United States. It’s sometimes called the Cheese Capital of the Nation. Immigrants from Europe brought their cheese-making skills to Wisconsin.
Wyoming
Wyoming is nicknamed the Equality State. Women in Wyoming had equal voting rights with men before any other American women did. Wyoming women first voted in 1870. The United States Constitution did not give the vote to women across the nation until 1920, 50 years later. Wyoming also was the first state to let women hold public office and serve on juries.
THE COWBOY STATE
Wyoming is also known as the Cowboy State. Wyoming grasslands are good for grazing cattle. In the 1860s, ranchers from Texas began bringing their cattle to fatten up in Wyoming. They hired cowboys to look after their cattle. Cowboys drove the cattle to railroad stations so the cattle could be shipped to market. Ranching is still important to the state.
Alberta
Alberta celebrates its cowboy past every July with a ten-day rodeo and fair held in the city of Calgary. The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, as it’s called, is the biggest annual event in Alberta. Cowboys demonstrate their skills in steer-wrestling, bronco-riding, and calf-roping contests at the daily rodeo. Chuck wagons race each evening.
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Alberta is the westernmost of Canada’s three Prairie Provinces. The other two are Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Much of the land is flat prairie, where wheat grows and cattle graze. But the land is varied.
Yellowstone National Park
Picture a place where you can see smelly gray mud bubbling up from the ground and steaming hot water shooting out of rocks. In the distance, high waterfalls tumble through colorful canyons.
It may sound like make-believe, but you can find all these things in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is in the United States and it’s the oldest national park in the world.
WHAT’S A NATIONAL PARK?
A national park is land set aside by the government in order to protect it. Yellowstone was made a national park in 1872. People realized it was a very special place that should be preserved.
British Columbia
Fur trading brought British explorers to the west coast of Canada. In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook arrived at Vancouver Island, now part of British Columbia (BC). In exchange for knives and other metal goods, the native tribes gave Cook and his men sea otter pelts and other animal skins.
MOUNTAINS, FORESTS, AND SEA
British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province and the only part of Canada to border the Pacific Ocean. Rugged mountains cover most of British Columbia. Thick forests grow on the mountains. Narrow inlets called fjords cut into the coast. Steep cliffs line the fjords.