Next week your NCECA Board of directors will meet in Milwaukee to plan the programming for next spring’s conference. In honor of our meeting, I thought I’d share a few “Milwaukee Fun Facts” that I found around the internet. If you’ve got some fun facts of your own about the site of our 2014 conference, please feel free to add it in the comments section below! Enjoy…
- The name Milwaukee comes from the Native American word “Milliocki” meaning gathering place by the water.
- The Allen Bradley Clocktower is one of Milwaukee’s most recognizable landmarks. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Allen Bradley Clock as the largest four-faced clock in the world. It is actually four separate clocks, each with an octagonal face nearly twice the size of the clocks on London’s Big Ben Tower.
- The typewriter was invented in Milwaukee in 1867 by Christopher Latham Sholes.
- The flame-shaped light on top of the Milwaukee Gas Company building changes color to forecast the weather. Yellow is cold, Red is warm, and Blue means no change.
- The Milwaukee Public Museum is home to the world’s largest dinosaur skull.
- The Milwaukee Art Museum’s Burke Brise Soleil (the “wings”) wingspans spreads 217 feet at its widest point, wider then a Boeing 747.
- Usingers Sausage in Milwaukee is known as “The Tiffany of Sausagemakers.”
- in 2009, Milwaukee was named one of the top ten best cities in the United States for independent filmmakers to work in Milwaukee Magazine
- Milwaukee was named among the top ten cities for best value vacation on Hotwire
- Milwaukee was listed among the top twenty Most Walkable Neighborhoods in America
- The skywalk over the Milwaukee River is the only skywalk in the U.S. that spans a river used by boats.
- In the late 1800s Milwaukee become known as “THE Beertown”. four famous Milwaukee brewers are Frederick Pabst, Frederick Miller, Joseph Schlitz and Valentine Blatz.
- The theme of the 2014 NCECA conference in Milwaukee is “Material World”
