Arkansas Rock Included In 'Odd Wisconsin' Exhibit

And there are the ordinary items: a drinking glass, a rock from Arkansas and a 6-foot aluminum pole.

All have an exceptional or weird story to accompany them and are featured in the exhibit "Odd Wisconsin," which opens next week at the Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison.

The glass was used by then-presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt during a 1912 Milwaukee speech he gave hours after a would-be assassin shot him in the chest.

The rock was thrown through the window of civil rights leader Daisy Bates of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 along with a note that read "The next will be dynamite. K.K.K." The pole is a Festivus pole used by current Gov. Jim Doyle in 2005. It's manufactured by The Wagner Cos. of Milwaukee. The poles gained popularity in the show "Seinfeld."

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