These were people whose parents had moved from New England to upstate New York in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution.

They were part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s.

The old stock Yankee population had large families, often bearing up to ten children in one household.

As a result, there was not enough land for every family to have a self-sustaining farm, and Yankee settlers began leaving New England for the Midwestern United States.

[5] They were aided in this effort by the construction and completion of the Erie Canal which made traveling to the region much easier, causing an additional surge in migrants coming from New England.

Added to this was the end of the Black Hawk War, which made the region much safer to travel through and settle in for white settlers.

When they arrived in what is now Sauk County there was nothing but dense virgin forest, the "Yankee" New Englanders laid out farms, constructed roads, erected government buildings and established post routes.

They brought with them many of their Yankee New England values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools as well as staunch support for abolitionism.

Due to the second Great Awakening some of them had converted to Methodism and some became Baptist before moving to what is now Sauk County.

On this issue the Yankees were divided and the Germans almost unanimously were opposed to it, tipping the balance in favor of opposition to prohibition.

Prior to World War I, many German community leaders in Wisconsin spoke openly and enthusiastically about how much better America was than Germany, due primarily (in their eyes) to the presence of English law and the English political culture the Americans had inherited from the colonial era, which they contrasted with the turmoil and oppression in Germany which they had so recently fled.

In the early 1900s immigrants from Ireland, Sweden, Norway and Poland also arrived in Sauk County.

The Culver's restaurant franchise has its headquarters in Prairie du Sac, and was first opened in Sauk City in 1984.

The summit is nestled in the Baraboo bluffs and stands to 1,593 feet (486 m) above sea level.

Since 1992 the county has voted for the statewide winner in every election, and is thus considered a bellwether politically.