Have
you ever been fishing or hunting in a boat on a Wisconsin
river or lake? Then you should thank a man named Paul
Oscar Husting.
A
long time ago, people could be arrested if they were
fishing or hunting in a boat that along a river or lake
that they did not own. How can you own a lake? In olden
days, if you owned the land on the shore of the lake,
you owned part of the lake. If you owned land on the
shore of a small creek or river, you owned the river
next to the land. So if someone was hunting or fishing
from a boat near your shore you could have them arrested.
This seemed fair to the people who owned the land, but
not to the many people who did not own land.
Mr.
Husting helped change the law.
Husting
was a lawyer. His ancestors were European and Native
American (Menominee Tribe.) He thought the waters should
belong to all the people of the state. When he heard
that some people in the Horicon Marsh area were being
arrested for putting boats on the water, he decided
to do something about it. He brought a legal case to
the court, and argued that the waters belong to all
the people.
Many
people thought Husting was wrong, but Husting thought
that he was right. He convinced the court to agree with
him. In 1914, Husting decided to seek election to the
United States Senate as a representative of the people
of Wisconsin. He won the election, and when he went
to work, he worked to protect nature.
There's
an important lesson from Senator Husting's life. He
showed us that handicapped people can do great things.
Husting had a deformed back. People often call it a
hunchback. He also had a strange voice because of something
that was different in his throat, and he was very difficult
to listen to. Yet he did great things. As a result of
his action, many people have enjoyed Wisconsin's natural
resources who would not have been able to do so.
