Wisconsin Death Trip

Wisconsin Death Trip charts myriad grim and bizarre occurrences that took place in and around Jackson County, Wisconsin—in particular, the city of Black River Falls—between 1885 and 1910. In addition to a disintegration of the local economy after the closure of several industrial mines, the populace is plagued by a diphtheria epidemic that claims the lives of numerous children, as well as a series of violent crimes, murders, suicides, arsons, religious delusions, mental illness, and superstitions. The vandalism crimes of Mary Sweeny are also showcased throughout.

The book is divided in five sections, with the opening and closing chapters focusing primarily on births, children, and child death; the middle three chapters focus on an array of incidents involving adults.^[2] The various occurrences are relayed via actual articles originally published in the local newspaper, the Badger State Banner, by editor Frank Cooper and his son George, as well as written documents from a medical records keeper from Mendota State Hospital, a town historian, and a town gossip.^[2] Lesy's own narration is also incorporated, along with selections from writings by Hamlin Garland, Sinclair Lewis, and Glenway Wescott.^[1]

Accompanying the text are approximately 200 photographs and portraits by Charles Van Schaick, a German immigrant who served as the Justice of Peace and town photographer for Black River Falls. The book emphasizes the harsh elements of Midwestern rural life during the expansion of the American Frontier and imminent urbanization, and their role in sordid incidents that unfolded in and around the community.

Michael Lesy began developing Wisconsin Death Trip while studying for a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1960s, during which he came across a collection of portraits and photographs by Black River Falls photographer Charles Van Schaick—taken between 1890 and 1900—that had been preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society.^[2] The collection had been acquired by the historical society in 1970, after having been left stored in Van Schaick's unused studio for thirty years following his death in 1940.^[2] Van Schaik had left behind a total of approximately 30,000 glass plate negatives, approximately 8,000 of which were salvaged by the historical society.^[2] "I thought some of the studio portraits were pretty amazing," Lesy recalled. "The whole experience that day seemed like a separate universe."^[2]

Inspired by the images, Lesy began researching the history of the town via microforms of contemporaneous newspaper articles from the Black River Falls newspaper, the Badger State Banner, which detailed numerous accounts of economic turmoil, crime, disease, mental illness, and violence.^[2] Lesy selected approximately 200 of Van Schaick's photographs for inclusion in the book,^[2] which he originally presented as his doctoral thesis at Rutgers University.^[3]

Pantheon Books first published Wisconsin Death Trip in 1973. It has been reprinted several times in the United States, first by Anchor Books in January 1991,^[4] and later by the University of New Mexico Press in January 2000.^[5] An eBook version was released by the University of New Mexico Press in August 2016.^[5]

The 1999 film adaptation was directed by James Marsh as a docudrama. It was shot primarily in black-and-white, with contrasting color sequences of modern life in the area. It combined re-enactments of some of the events described in the book with a voice-over narration by Ian Holm. Its visual style was intended to carry the content of the film; as Marsh said: "I wanted to convey in the film the real pathos contained in a four line newspaper report that simultaneously records and dismisses the end of someone's life."^[6]