Green Bay

Green Bay is located on Lake Michigan in Brown County, Wisconsin, at the mouth of the Fox River.  The Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and other native peoples inhabited the area for at least 10,000 years, drawn to the area's rich soil and abundant fish, wild rice, and waterfowl. The earliest reliably documented contact between Europeans and Indians in Wisconsin was in 1634,  when French explorer Jean Nicolet (1598-1642) met the Ho-Chunk,  followed by missionaries Claude Allouez (1622-1689) and Jacques Marquette (1637-1675). The French named the area "La Baye," and it served as the main point of entry into the continent's interior.  In 1763, the British ousted the French and took control of Green Bay until 1783, when the Americans won control in the American Revolution.

The Americans built Fort Howard in 1816 to control the entrance into Wisconsin.  The fort had excellent transportation routes on the Fox River and Lake Michigan and the entire Great Lakes system which had access the east.  The transportation routes were further improved with the construction of what is known as the old military road beginning at Fort Howard and extending west to the frontier.  The road proved much more efficient than navigating the waterways.  The rapid expansion of the United States had pushed the frontier west of the Mississippi and Wisconsin’s old military road proved far more important to civilians than the army once that it was constructed.  The road was key to the economic and civil development of Wisconsin, nurturing the settlement of the region.  

Wisconsin was incorporated into the Union in 1848 which also marked the beginning of the mass emigration from Austria-Hungary and Central Europe to the United States. First attracted to Wisconsin were Germans, who were soon followed by Czechs and Scandinavians.  The growth of the settlement in Green Bay was influenced by the presence and operations of Fort Howard.  Officers of the fort helped keep the peace between local Native American tribes and settlers.  The fort provided medical services, education, and a lively social environment.  With the fort, the community grew rapidly. Troops were actively stationed at Fort Howard until 1852 and the fort was officially closed in 1863.  The surrounding city of Green Bay, however, continued to expand.   In the 1870s, when the growth of railroads displaced steamboats as the main form of transportation to and from Green Bay, the city became a center of iron smelting, lumber milling, and paper products. Green Bay also became home to the state's first newspaper and was the first city to receive mail.  Surrounding villages include Allouez and Suamico.

Sanborn Map of Green Bay, 1900