So besides organic farming and television references to midwestern towns, Wisconsin is a national leader in ... anyone? Anyone? Yep, you guessed it – high end pool cue production. It may have to do with Wisconsin's massive population of woodworkers, trees, and/or bars with a pool table (not sure), but we have a lot small shops churning out gorgeous cues for hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars apiece. JSOnline tells us ...

• "You probably have the mother lode of cue makers," said one of the best known non-Wisconsin manufacturers in the United States, Dan Janes of Joss Cues in Towson, Md.
• This isn't big business. The largest participants have no more than a few dozen employees. ...
• "When you get into the real cue makers, there's no doubt that Wisconsin is the most productive state in the country," said Mike Panozzo, publisher of magazines Billiards Digest and Billiard Retailer.

Check out the article for a photo gallery of cue production. Awesome/interesting quotation from a cue maker: "Some customers look at you in a different light if you make too many cues.  "They want you to be carving them with a jackknife in a garage."