Winnebago: a diversion

Treffert of reference 1 – an easy and interesting read about people with extraordinary skills – perhaps feats of mental arithmetic or memory – and many of whom were badly handicapped in other ways – cut his teeth at the Winnebago State Hospital – a name only known to me in connection with high-end motor homes. Which prompted a lockdown excursion.

Investigation reveals a Winnebago County in Wisconsin, a little to the west of Lake Michigan, north of Milwaukee and Chicago. Named for the Winnebago Indian’s who once lived in the area.

There was a middle sized mental hospital in Winnebago County, at a place called Oshkosh, a little to the south of the town of Winnebago, on the western shore of Lake Winnebago. 

Furthermore, there seem to be plenty of places in the area with French names, presumably the result of settlers pushing down from Canada to the north.

The hospital started out as Northern State Hospital for the Insane, with around 600 beds, then the Winnebago State Hospital with rather more and now the Winnebago Mental Health Institute with something under 200. A place which has had its fair share of scandals, just like some of the old mental hospitals in this country.

 

However, it turns out that there are several places called Winnebago in the US, and the mobile home people come from the Iowa one, some hundreds of miles to the west, on the other side of the Mississippi.

More precisely in a place called Forest City, highlighted in white, far left, with our Winnebago being on the lake, far right.

Yours for half a million dollars or so. Just the thing to wow the all the people up at Canvey Island – or down at Hayling Island.

While back at the beginning, a little to the south of the mental hospital, gmaps highlights the EAA museum, from where I got to the striking snap above: ‘Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn leaving their plane, "Pistol Packin' Mama," at the four-engine school at Lockbourne AAF, Ohio, during WASP ferry training. (U.S. Air Force)’. Very roughly comparable to the ladies who ferried aeroplanes about the UK during the second world war – with the difference that these ones had a lot of trouble getting proper recognition, with some the males of the species not being very keen on them at all. For which see the Smithsonian Magazine – finding which is left as an exercise for the reader.

Reference 1: Extraordinary People: Understanding savant syndrome – Darold A. Treffert – 1989.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/06/some-preliminaries.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnebago_County,_Wisconsin.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnebago_Mental_Health_Institute.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnebago_Industries.

Reference 6: https://winnebagoind.com/.

Reference 7: https://www.eaa.org/eaa. The Experimental Aircraft Association. A home for aeroplane nuts, young and old.

Reference 8: https://www.eaa.org/eaa-museum. Their museum.