Our law books are full of old and bizarre ... laws. Some are so specific they make you wonder what exact thing happened to someone to make them decide a law should be passed so that no one ever did that thing again. Here's a collection of some unordinary ordinances Wisconsin still has on the books ... three real ones, a maybe, and one that's totally not for real.

1. It is finable for an “offensive” looking person to be on the streets of Milwaukee (True!)

Between the 1870s and 1970s many cities enacted  laws sometimes called 'unsightly beggar' ordinances that prohibited people with disfigurements, diseases, or otherwise unwanted characteristics from being in public. This is definitely no longer enforced.

2. The government may not prohibit manually flushed urinals (True!)

Wisconsin statute 101.07 states that the government may not directly or indirectly prohibit manually flushed urinals. Also, it must take steps to promote their installation. Either someone in the state senate really likes manual urinals, or was probably scared to death by an automatic flushing one.

No you go. No you go. No you go. No you ...

3. When two trains stop at an intersection, it is illegal for one train to proceed until the other has (Not Sure!)

Did you have to read this twice? I sure did. How does this even work? I just spent 20 minutes trying to diagram this on a whiteboard and I still don’t understand. Send help. (Despite this law appearing in many, many places around the web, I was unable to verify its actual existence.)

4. It is a Class A misdemeanor to wave a burning torch in the air (True!)

Statute 941.10 indicates that anyone who handles burning material in a highly negligent manner will be subject to prosecution. Specifically, in "...which the person should realize that a substantial and unreasonable risk of serious damage to another's property is created." Wave your torches responsibly, angry mobs.

Pictured above: Certainly not a hat.

5: It is illegal to cross from Minnesota to Wisconsin with a duck on your head (Myth!)

Now while it’s fun to think that at one point there must have been hordes of Minnesotans crossing the border with foul hats, there just isn’t any law preventing it. The best guess is that this urban legend-ish law stems from a very poor reading of an old Minnesota statute governing the interstate sale of a fabric known as duck cloth.