In the 1820s, after hearing reports of abundant lead in the area, prospective miners with "lead fever" began pouring into southwestern Wisconsin. Finding ore just beneath the surface, miners set up "diggings" and soon established Mineral Point. It quickly became the regional center for land sales and government. In 1836, the Territory's first governor, Henry Dodge, was inaugurated here and served his first term out of Mineral Point. Immigrant Cornish miners brought advanced hard-rock and deep mining skills and a distinctive stone building tradition to the area. The lead industry waned in the 1860s, but zinc mining developed in the 1880s and flourished into the early 20th century. After new technology slowed the demand for lead and zinc, Mineral Point's industrial focus changed to agriculture. The 1930s marked the birth of Mineral Point's preservation movement, but it did not develop on a large scale until the 1960s when artists, crafts people and preservationists began to restore many of the old mining town's limestone buildings. In 1971 Mineral Point was listed as Wisconsin's first historic district in the National Register of Historic Places.
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