Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Sheboygan () is a city in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census, while the Sheboygan metropolitan area had 118,034 residents. The city is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Sheboygan River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Milwaukee and 64 miles (103 kilometers) south of Green Bay.

History

Before its settlement by European Americans, the Sheboygan area was home to Native Americans, including members of the Potawatomi, Chippewa, Ottawa, Winnebago, and Menominee tribes. In the Menominee language, the place is known as Sāpīwǣhekaneh, "at a hearing distance in the woods". The Menominee ceded this land to the United States in the 1831 Treaty of Washington. Following the treaty, the land became available for sale to American settlers. Migrants from New York, Michigan, and New England were among the first new Americans to settle this area in the 1830s, though the French had been present in the region since the 17th century and had intermarried with local people. One 19th century settler remarked: "Nearly all the settlers were from the New England states and New York." Lumbering was the first major industry, as trees were harvested and shipped to eastern markets through the Great Lakes.

Although Sheboygan was officially incorporated in 1846, much of the town had been platted in 1836, when property investors laid out more than one thousand lots.