As many cows as humans call WISCONSIN home. About four million of each eat to their hearts' content in this rich, rolling farmland, which has a higher proportion of overweight people than any other state. However, America's self-proclaimed "Dairyland" is more than just one giant pasture. Beyond the massive red barns and silvery silos lie endless pine forests, some 15,000 sky-blue lakes, postcard-pretty valleys and dramatic bluffs. The state, whose Ojibway name means "gathering of the waters," is bordered by Lake Michigan to the east, Lake Superior in the north and, to the west, the Mississippi and St Croix rivers. Only the southern boundary, with Illinois, is dry.

The history of Wisconsin exemplifies the standard formula for westward expansion. Seventeenth-century French and British explorers began by trading with the Native Americans and soon ousted them from their land. The European settlers who followed - predominantly Germans, Scandinavians and Poles - tended to be liberal and progressive; such major national social programs as labor laws for women and children, assistance for the elderly and the disabled, and unemployment compensation were rooted here. On the downside, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the infamous 1950s witch-hunter, was born in Grand Chute, former headquarters of the right-wing John Birch Society.

Wisconsin today is best known for its liquids. The milk from all those cattle yields cheeses of all kinds, while the beer , as the song says, is what made Milwaukee famous. Sparkling Madison apart, Wisconsin's other cities - LaCrosse, Green Bay, Oshkosh - can veer toward the dull side, but they're also clean, safe and amiable. The smaller towns can be distinctive and charming.