Madison

Madison exists because a land speculator designed symbiosis into the landscape. In 1829, James Duane Doty purchased 1,261 acres of swamp and forest on the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona for $1,500. The Ho-Chunk people called this region Teejop—'land of the four lakes.' Doty saw something else: a natural bottleneck where power and knowledge could be forced to coexist.

In 1848, Doty persuaded the Wisconsin legislature to place both the state capital AND the state university on his narrow strip of land between two lakes. This was deliberate co-location—forcing government and research into the same ecosystem the way cleaner wrasse and reef fish share the same coral head. Most capitals and flagship universities sit in separate cities. Madison fused them.

The founder effect rippled forward. UW-Madison now ranks 6th nationally in research expenditures, with 20 Nobel laureates among its alumni and faculty. Nearly half of Madison's residents (48.2%) hold bachelor's degrees—the highest rate of any American city this size. The university isn't adjacent to the city; it IS the city's metabolism.

This knowledge-density attracted Epic Systems, which Judy Faulkner started in a basement with $70,000 in 1979. Today Epic's healthcare software manages records for over 190 million patients through Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and other major systems. The Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub received $49 million in federal funding in 2024, projecting $9 billion in GDP growth and 30,000 new jobs over the next decade. Madison's tech sector saw $450 million in venture funding in 2024 alone.

The isthmus geography that Doty exploited continues to shape everything: limited land forces density, density accelerates knowledge spillover, and knowledge spillover attracts more knowledge workers. What began as a real estate speculation became a demonstration that the most valuable thing a city can manufacture is educated minds.