Those pioneering lead miners in southwestern Wisconsin were immigrants from Cornwall. Their wives sent with them to the mines a noon lunch consisting of cooked veggies and meat enclosed in a pastry “envelope” called a “pasty.” Mineral Point restaurants still today (or at least they did a decade ago) offer a meat & veggie meal enclosed in a pastry wrap, a “pasty.”
Some of the miners, not taking time immediately to construct a log cabin residence, or lacking the wherewithal to afford it, set up housekeeping in existing caves in the limestone cliffs. Some wag observed that they lived
like “badgers,” and from this, legend has it, came Wisconsin’s “nickname, the “Badger State.”
I believe this industry, along with earlier ventures in fur trapping, were major natural resource sources of material wealth well before tilling the soil and growing crops became established. Early Wis. was an important wheat-growing territory/state long before dairy farming got started as what might be termed an “industry.” The lumber industry later came along, harvesting the pine/fir forests of the north. Many major “brownstone” buildings in New York City were build of reddish-brown granite mined in central Wisconsin, leaving large, very deep pits now filled with water.
Ummmm...yummmmmy pasties. I knew about the connection to
Cornwall but always thought that they were more of an upper MI treat than here in WI. Interesting info.
I make pasties regularly (using shortcuts). My mom was born & raised in the UP where many worked in the mines.
Enjoyed the post AFFTR. I didn’t know a few of those details.
People in Wisconsin (and some restaurants) still serve pastys in the winter. Mmmmmmm-good!