Waukesha, Wisconsin

Waukesha ( WAW-ki-shaw) is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. Located along the Fox River adjacent to the Village of Waukesha, it is the eighth-most populous city in Wisconsin. Waukesha is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

Etymology

"Waukesha" is thought to be an Anglicization of the Ojibwe word Waagoshag, the plural of fox (waagosh), or the Potawatomi name Wau-tsha. Wau-tsha (sometimes written as Wauk-tsha or Wauke-tsha) was the leader of the local tribe at the time of the first European settlement of the area. This is confirmed by accounts of Increase A. Lapham, an early settler and historian of the region. According to Lapham, the Algonquian word for "fox" was pishtaka. Cutler also told visitors about Wau-tsha, who was described as "tall and athletic, proud in his bearing, dignified and friendly."

History

Founding and early history

The Waukesha area was first settled by European-Americans in 1834, with Morris D. Cutler as its first settler. The founders of Waukesha were settlers from New England, part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s. Most arrived as a result of the completion of the Erie Canal as well as the end of the Black Hawk War. When the first settlers arrived, there was nothing but dense virgin forest and wild prairie. The settlers laid out farms, constructed roads, erected government buildings and established post routes. They brought many of their Yankee values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools as well as staunch support for abolitionism. They were mostly members of the Congregationalist Church though some were Episcopalian. Due to the second Great Awakening some had converted to Methodism and others had become Baptists before moving to Waukesha County. Like much of Wisconsin, Waukesha would be culturally very continuous with New England culture for most of its early history.

By 1846, the area was incorporated as the town of Prairie Village (soon changed to Prairieville). On February 8, 1847, the town changed its name to "Waukesha". On January 10, 1852, the settled area once known as Prairieville was separated from the town of Waukesha and incorporated as a village; it incorporated as a city in 1896. The first appointed mayor of the newly incorporated city of Waukesha was John Brehm, who served from January to April 1896. Welsh immigrants settling in Waukesha as early as the 1840s, and large numbers arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when they were one of the largest ethnic groups in Waukesha. In the late 1800s a large number of Belgian families arrived in Waukesha as well. Around the same time there was also relatively large amounts of Serbian immigrants settling in Waukesha, many more of which arrived after the Yugoslav Wars much later in the 1990s.

Natural springs

Matthew Laflin, an early pioneer of Chicago, Illinois, provided the capital and enterprise that laid the foundation for Waukesha as a famous Wisconsin watering resort and was the proprietor of the grand resort, the Fountain Spring House. Waukesha was once known for its extremely clean and good-tasting spring water and was called a "spa town." This earned the city the nicknames "Spring City" and "Saratoga of the West."

According to author Kristine Adams Wendt, in 1868, Colonel Richard Dunbar, a sufferer of diabetes, chanced upon the medicinal properties of what he later named the Bethesda Spring while viewing a parcel of land recently purchased by his sister. Testimonials found in a Dunbar brochure of 1873 proclaimed the miraculous benefits. Wendt reports that by 1872, "area newspapers carried accounts of a community ill equipped to handle its new popularity among the suffering multitudes. The semi-weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee) of July 31, 1872, reported 'that fully 500 visitors are quartered in hotels and scattered in private families here, seeking benefit from the marvelous waters…'"

The "healing waters" were so valued that a controversial attempt was made to build a pipeline between the city and Chicago so that they could be enjoyed by visitors to the 1893 Columbian Exposition. According to Time magazine, "[t]he scheme had been conceived by one Charles Welsh who had been given the springs by his uncle, but after several miles of pipe were laid, it was discovered that the cost was too great." Richard Warren Sears, founder of Sears and Roebuck, may have been attracted to Waukesha by the waters. In failing health, Sears retired from business in 1908 and, according to The New York Times, "spent his time on his great farm near Waukesha." In 1914, Sears died in Waukesha of Bright's disease, leaving an estate estimated at $20 million.

Over the years, the natural springs have been spoiled by pollution and a number have gone dry. Water drawn from an aquifer reached radium levels exceeding federal standards.

20th century to present

One of the most important "firsts" in American sports history occurred in Waukesha on September 5, 1906, when Carroll College (now Carroll University) hosted the football team from St. Louis University. SLU halfback Bradbury Robinson threw the first legal forward pass in football history in that game. The Carroll players and local fans were stunned. The visitors went on to win 22–0.

During the Cold War, Waukesha County was the site of three Nike Missile batteries, located in the city of Waukesha and nearby Muskego and Lannon. In the city of Waukesha, the U.S. Army and later the Wisconsin National Guard operated the command and control center from 1956 to 1970 at what is now Hillcrest Park, on Davidson Road. The missile pits existed near the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Hwy 164—first holding Ajax missiles with conventional warheads and later the nuclear equipped Hercules warhead. The Hercules provided a similar nuclear capability as that of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in World War II. The Midwest Chapter of the Cold War Museum has promoted the preservation of the Hillcrest Park site as a local Cold War museum, honoring Cold War veterans and commemorating America's longest and costliest conflict.

In 2013, Waukesha applied for permission to withdraw water from Lake Michigan. Because Waukesha is outside the lake's basin, the 2008 Great Lakes Compact makes the city ineligible to withdraw water from the lake without approval from the governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In June 2016, the governors approved Waukesha's application. Construction of the supply and return pipelines for the Waukesha water diversion from Lake Michigan was completed in 2024. Typical water bills in the City are projected to increase by approximately 50% between 2023 and 2027, to fund the supply and return pipelines.

On May 31, 2014, two 12-year-old Waukesha girls lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. They did this to appease a fictional online character known as Slender Man. The victim survived the attack after being found by a cyclist. The two perpetrators were found not guilty by mental disease or defect, and were sentenced to long periods in mental health institutions.

On November 21, 2021, the driver of a red SUV by the name of Darrell E. Brooks Jr drove through the Waukesha Christmas Parade during its procession through downtown Waukesha late that afternoon, killing six people and injuring 62 others. He was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 763 years and 3 months to be served consecutively.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 25.07 square miles (64.93 km²), of which 24.81 square miles (64.26 km²) is land and 0.26 square miles (0.67 km²) is water.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, the population was 71,158. The population density was 2,788.1 inhabitants per square mile (1,076.5/km²). There were 31,280 housing units at an average density of 1,225.6 units per square mile (473.2 units/km²). Ethnically, the population was 14.0% Hispanic or Latino of any race. When grouping both Hispanic and non-Hispanic people together by race, the city was 78.6% White, 3.5% Black or African American, 3.4% Asian, 0.5% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 4.4% from other races, and 9.6% from two or more races.

The 2020 census population of the city included 351 people incarcerated in adult correctional facilities and 793 people in student housing.