ASCENT MKE

 

Ascent MKE is a mass timber hybrid high-rise apartment building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 284-foot, 25-story high-rise is the world's tallest mass timber structure, edging out Norway's Mjøstårnet. It features 259 luxury apartments, retail space, an elevated pool with operable window walls, and a sky-deck.

ASCENT MKE - 700 E. KULBOURN AVE., MILWAUKEE, WI

WORLD'S LONGEST PUTT (NON-TOURNAMENT)

 

NOTE: See April 17, 2019 Blog Post for “THE LONGEST TELEVISED MADE PUTT”

On September 26, 2023, the “World’s Longest Putt” competition was held at The Baths at Blackwolf Run Golf Course in Kohler, Wisconsin. After the formal competition was completed, Jay Stocki, and some of the other competitors spent two days trying to break the Guinness record for longest non-tournament putt made – 395 feet. On the second day, Stocki made a 401 feet 2 inches putt. This is now the record for the longest golf putt (non-tournament).

45X90 POINTS (MARATHON COUNTY, WISCONSIN)

The 45x90 points are the four points on earth which are halfway between the geographical poles, the equator the Prime Meridian and the 180th meridian*. The best-known and most frequently visited such point is 45°0’0” N 90°0’0” W which is located on land at 1,345 feet above sea level in the town of Rietbrock, Wisconsin near the unincorporated community of Poniatowski. This point is the center of the Northwest Hemisphere. The original geographic marker was placed by the Marathon County Park Commission at an incorrect location, but was removed and relocated to the correct location in 2017. The only other 45x90 point on land is 45°0’0” N 90°0’0” E, which is at an elevation of 3.311 feet above sea level and is in a desolates region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, near the Mongolian border. *The Prime Meridian is at 0 degrees latitude. The Anti-meridian is at 180 degrees latitude. Together they form a great circle that divides a spheroid (the earth) into two hemispheres (eastern and western).

Pathway to 45x90 Marker in Marathon County, Wisconsin

ACUITY INSURANCE AMERICAN FLAG

The Acuity Insurance Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin flagpole flies the world’s largest free-flying American Flag.

·         At 400 feet, the flagpole is the tallest in the world flying a U.S. flag ·         Flagpole weighs approximately 420,000 pounds ·         Flagpole is designed to withstand a low temperature of -42 degrees and wind speeds up to 130 mph ·         The flagpole is nearly 100 feet taller than the Statute of Liberty ·         70-by140-foot flag is the world’s largest free-flying American flag ·         Flag is 4 stories tall ·         Each stripe is over 5 feet high and each star nearly 3 feet across ·         9,800-square-foot flag weighs 340 pounds ·         11-foot diameter at base of pole tapers to 5½ foot diameter at top ·         680 cubic yards of concrete used in foundation ·         Over 500 gallons of paint to cover the pole ·         Dedicated on June 16, 2014

IXONIA, WISCONSIN

Ixonia is a town in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. The population was 4,385 at the 2010 census. The town of Ixonia was organized on February 12, 1841, as the town of Union. Five years later Union was divided into two new towns. The name “Ixonia” was given to one of the new towns on January 21, 1846. As the residents could not otherwise agree on a name, the name was chosen by drawing letters at random.

DR. EVERNOR'S FOREVERTRON

Dr. Evermor's Forevertron, built in the 1980s, is the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world, standing 50 feet high and 120 feet wide, and weighing 300 tons.

The Forevertron is housed in Dr. Evermor's Art Park on Highway 12, in the town of Sumpter, in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The sculpture incorporates two Thomas Edison dynamos from the 1880s, lightning rods, high-voltage components from 1920s power plants, scrap from the nearby Badger Army Ammunition Plant, and the decontamination chamber from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Its fictional creator, Dr. Evermor, was born Tom Every in Brooklyn, Wisconsin and is a former demolition expert who spent decades collecting antique machinery for the sculpture and the surrounding fiction that justifies it. According to Every, Dr. Evermor is a Victorian inventor who designed the Forevertron to launch himself, "into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam."

THE FOREVERTRON

WISCONSIN "BADGER"

Wisconsin’s state symbol, the badger, doesn’t refer to the animal, but instead to the 1820s lead miners who traveled for work and dug tunnels to sleep in and keep warm, much like a badger. The state has no “official” nickname. It is commonly referred to as both the “Badger State” and “America’s Dairyland”. The badger name (animal) was adopted by the University of Wisconsin in 1899.

THREE-DIRECTIONAL CONCURRENCY

An unusual example of a three-directional concurrency occurs southeast of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where US 8 westbound (the actual compass direction) converges with southbound Wisconsin Highway 17 and northbound Wisconsin Highway 47.

A three-directional concurrency outside Rhinelander, Wisconsin

More on concurrencies in the next post.

SPUTNIK 4

On September 5, 1962, a 20 pound piece of the 7 ton Sputnik 4 spacecraft crashed onto North Eighth Street east of the Rahr-West Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The impact location is marked with a ring. A cast was made from the original piece before the Soviets claimed it, and the cast is on display at the museum.

The city holds an annual Sputnikfest celebration.

Sputnik 4 crash site in Manitowoc, Wisconsin