Half-way Between the Equator and North Pole Sign in Cadott, Wisconsin

Standing on the 45th Parallel

When you visit Cadott, Wisconsin you can’t help but know exactly where you are on the planet, thanks to the large sign in Riverview Park West (so called because it’s the part of the park on the west side of WI 27) on the northern side of the town.

Half-way Between the Equator and North Pole in Cadott, Wisconsin — Half-way between the equator and north pole sign in Cadott, Wisconsin. Photo from the author’s collection. Taken July 23, 2014.

When you’re standing in front of this sign, you’re approximately 3,107 miles north of the Equator and approximately 3,107 miles south of the North Pole — which would place you half-way between the Equator and North Pole. Just like the sign advertises.

The Half-way sign in 2024. Note the (maybe not so) subtle differences from the 2014 sign. Photo from the author’s collection.

A legacy of geographic proportions

The Half-way sign was first installed in 1955 by the Cadott Lions Club. The idea was championed by Dr. H.P. Landry, a Cadott dentist and keen enthusiast for geographical phenomena (or at least for lines of latitude).

Landry was a big deal in Cadott. He was a founding member and the one-time president of the Cadott Lions, a founding member of the American Legion Hall in Cadott (after serving in the Army Dental Corps in World War I) and president of the Cadott Chamber of Commerce.

The original wood sign stood in the park for 44 years before weather and the harsh Wisconsin winters took their toll. In the original, the large globe representing the Earth broke the frame of the rectangle on the left side.

Image of a 1970s-era postcard of the original Cadott sign. From the author’s collection.

The entire Half-way sign was replaced in 1999 (and again some time after 2014 and maybe even a few more times) with the sign you can visit today.

How far to … ?

No notable geographic location is truly complete without an accompanying directional signpost. So, naturally, Cadott made sure to include just such a marker near the half-way sign.

The directional marker near the Half-way sign. Photo from the author’s collection.

Some of the recognized towns include Churchill Downs, Niagara Falls, Vancouver, and Phiadelphia (hey … that’s how it reads on the sign).

Not really half-way between the Equator and the North Pole

There is one slight problem with sign and its geographic location — and that’s Cadott doesn’t really sit on the 45th Parallel.

To be fair, the sign does include a disclaimer to that effect. The smallest text on the large sign reads “Actual site of Midway point is 3 miles north of Cadott.”

Read the small print. Detail from the above photo.

Actual site of Midway point

To visit the real location of the 45th Parallel, all you need to do is drive a little more than three miles north along WI 27 (3.23 miles by our odometer) from Riverview Park to the intersection of WI 27 and 110th avenue.

There you’ll find a much less bombastic sign, easily overlooked to anyone driving by at highway speeds because it’s just a standard street sign. But if you slow down and take a closer look, you’ll see it reads “Geographical Marker” and “45th Parallel.”

The nondescript marker indicating the 45th Parallel. Photo from the author’s collection.

The Battle of the 45th Parallel

Being located along (well, near) the 45th Parallel isn’t unique to Cadott, and there are other towns in Wisconsin (and across the United States) that make the same claim including Beaver, Lena, Suring, and Tilden.

In 1999, Tilden, a town just 15 miles from Cadott (and one which sits closer to the 45th Parallel) challenged Cadott by installing its own Half-way billboard.

Tilden’s sign pretty much borrowed all the design elements from the Cadott sign — a large globe, a huge arrow, and the tagline “halfway between the equator and north pole.” It was even sponsored by the Tilden Lions Club.

Tilden’s powers-that-be opted to place their sign just before exit number 102 on southbound US 53. But they apparently surrendered in 2016 when the sign was removed and replaced with a colorful “town of Tilden” sign.

The welcoming sign that sits in the former location of Tilden’s half-way sign. Photo from the author’s collection.

Bonus: Cadotte Trading Post Site

Cadott is named for the Cadotte family, a powerhouse of the French fur trade in the late 1700s and early 1800s. After establishing a trading post on Madeline Island, the Cadottes traveled to the area and began trading along the Yellow River near where Riverview Park is today.

There is a memorial monument to the legacy of the Cadotte family in Riverview West Park, just across the driveway from the halfway sign.

A statue representing an idealized “Cadotte” Fur Trader, carved from a section of Northern White Pine by Clam Lake-based sculptor Jerry Holter, is on display inside a wood-and-plexiglass monument.

Monument to the Cadotte family legacy in Riverview Park. Photo from the author’s collection. It could be a better photo, but it was raining.

The concrete base of the monument is decorated with a series of bronze plaques that tell the story of the region’s history focusing on the Cadottes and Robert Marriner (the man who turned the area into a permanent settlement).