Jules Verne’s Wisconsin

An illustration from the 1st edition of Verne’s novel by Georges Roux. Wisconsin’s fictional trans-state speedway from Prairie du Chien to Milwaukee is pictured.

Jules Verne was well aware of Wisconsin's reputation as the home of the first automobile, the first automobile race and later (not quite as grandiose as Verne predicted) the world's first speedway. He describes Wisconsin as the progressive, forward looking place of both invention and re-invention that it was in the late 1800's. Just as Edgar Rice Burroughs sets the rousing climax of Tarzan, The Ape Man in Wisconsin, Verne puts his imagined Badger State to good use in chapter 3 of Master of The World. Here's an excerpt...

“A race was to be held by the automobile Club of Wisconsin, over the roads of that state of which Madison is the capital. The route laid out formed an excellent track, about two hundred miles in length, starting from Prairie-du-chien on the western frontier, passing by Madison and ending a little above Milwaukee on the borders of Lake Michigan. Except for the Japanese road between Nikko and Namode, bordered by giant cypresses, there is no better track in the world than this of Wisconsin. It runs straight and level as an arrow for sometimes fifty miles at a stretch. Many and noted were the machines entered for this great race. Every kind of motor vehicle was permitted to compete, even motorcycles, as well as automobiles. The machines were of all makes and nationalities. The sum of the different prizes reached fifty thousand dollars, so that the race was sure to be desperately contested. New records were expected to be made.”