Editing Ozaukee County, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
===Precolonial===
The Hilgen Spring Mound Site is one of the oldest-known sites of human habitation of Ozaukee County. Located near [[Cedar Creek (Wisconsin)|Cedar Creek]] in the eastern part of the City of [[Cedarburg, Wisconsin|Cedarburg]], the site consists of three conical burial mounds constructed by early [[Woodland period]] [[Mound Builders]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin: Central Lake Michigan Coastal Ecological Landscape |url=https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landscapes/documents/1805Ch8.pdf#view=Fit |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landscapes/documents/1805Ch8.pdf#view=Fit |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources |access-date=February 13, 2020}}</ref> In 1968, archaeologists from the [[Milwaukee Public Museum]] found human burials and artifacts, including stone altars, arrowheads, and pottery shards, during an excavation of one of the mounds. [[Radiocarbon dating|Radiocarbon samples]] from the excavation date the mounds' construction to approximately 480&nbsp;BCE, making it one of the oldest mound groups in the state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Searching for the 'Spirit of the Place'|date=May 17, 2016 |url=https://shepherdexpress.com/arts-and-entertainment/visual-art/searching-spirit-place/|publisher=Shepherd Express|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hilgen Spring Mound Site Revisited: Lecture|date=May 26, 2016 |url=https://www.localeben.com/2016/05/26/hilgen-spring-mound-site-revisited/|publisher=Localeben|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref>

In the mid-1800s, [[Increase A. Lapham]] identified a group of circular mounds in the [[Saukville, Wisconsin|Saukville]] area and found a stone ax. In his writing, Lapham did not speculate about the age of the artifact or the mounds.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lapham |first=Increase A. |date=1855 |title=The Antiquities of Wisconsin, as Surveyed and Described by I. A. Lapham, Civil Engineer, etc., on Behalf of the American Antiquarian Society |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Antiquities/antiqC01.html |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]  |chapter=Chapter 1: Ancient Works in the Vicinity of Lake Michigan |isbn=}}</ref> An additional artifact of the early Native American presence in the Saukville area is the Ozaukee County [[Bird stone|Birdstone]], discovered by a six-year-old farm boy in 1891.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beer |first1=James R. |date=2003 |title=Ozaukee County Birdstone Stays Home in Wisconsin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43143792 |journal=Central States Archaeological Journal |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=39–42 |jstor=43143792 |access-date=June 27, 2021}}</ref> While the exact age of the Ozaukee County Birdstone remains uncertain, many birdstones date from a period ranging from 3000 BCE to 500 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15980 |title=Birdstones |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= January 24, 2019|website=wisconsinhistory.org |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |access-date=June 27, 2021 |quote=Birdstones are pre-contact abstract stone carvings that seem to our 21st Century eyes to represent birds. The majority appear to have been made between 5000 and 2500 years ago.}}</ref>

===19th century===
In the early 19th century, the Native Americans living in Ozaukee County included the [[Menominee]], [[Potawatomi]], and [[Sauk people]]. There were numerous Native American villages in the county along the [[Milwaukee River]] and its tributaries. The Menominee surrendered their claims to the land east of the Milwaukee River to the United States Federal Government in 1832 through the [[Treaty of Washington, with Menominee (1831)|Treaty of Washington]]. The Potawatomi surrendered their claims to the land west of the river in 1833 through the [[1833 Treaty of Chicago]], which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave the area by 1838. While many Potawatomi people moved west of the Mississippi River to [[Kansas]], some chose to remain in Wisconsin, and were known as "strolling Potawatomi" because they were migrant [[Squatting|squatters]]. Eventually the Potawatomi who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin, where they formed the [[Forest County Potawatomi Community]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Potawatomi History|url=https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-152|publisher=Milwaukee Public Museum|access-date=February 20, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Gerwing |first1 = Anselm J. |title = The Chicago Indian Treaty of 1833 |journal = Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |date =Summer 1964 |volume = 57 |issue = 2 |pages = 117–142 |jstor = 40190019 |issn = 0019-2287 }}</ref>

The first whites in the area were primarily New England land speculators, who began purchasing land from the government in 1835 at the price of $1.25 per acre.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Ozaukee County|url=https://www.co.ozaukee.wi.us/DocumentCenter/View/624/History-of-Ozaukee-County?bidId=|publisher=Ozaukee County|access-date=January 11, 2020}}</ref> One of these land speculators was Wooster Harrison, who settled the land that would become [[Port Washington, Wisconsin|Port Washington]] in 1835, which he originally named "Wisconsin City."<ref name=price>Sister M. Jane Frances Price, S.S.N.S., ''The History of Port Washington, in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin'' (Ph.D. diss., De Paul University, 1943), pp. 7-8.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA115|year=1908|page=115}}</ref> At the time, the land was part of [[Washington County, Wisconsin|Washington County]], and there were proposals that Port Washington become the county seat.<ref name="ReferenceA">"History of Ozaukee County"</ref> However, Port Washington was far from the county's other early settlements, including [[Mequon, Wisconsin|Mequon]], [[Grafton (town), Wisconsin|Grafton]] and [[Germantown, Wisconsin|Germantown]]. In 1850, the Wisconsin legislature bisected Washington County into northern and southern counties, with Port Washington as the northern seat and [[Cedarburg, Wisconsin|Cedarburg]] as the southern. County residents failed to ratify the bill, and in 1853 the legislature instead bisected the county into eastern and western sections, creating Ozaukee County. Port Washington became the seat of the new county, and the Washington County seat moved to [[West Bend, Wisconsin|West Bend]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Encyclopedia of Milwaukee: Ozaukee County|url=https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/ozaukee-county/|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee|access-date=January 11, 2020}}</ref>

In the 1840s, [[Germans|German]], [[Irish people|Irish]], and [[Luxembourgers|Luxembourger]] immigrants began settling in the county. Germans were the largest ethnic group in and 19th century Ozaukee County,<ref name="ReferenceB">"Encyclopedia of Milwaukee: Ozaukee County"</ref> with seven in eight residents being of German descent according to the 1870 census.<ref>{{cite web|title=Early history of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=turn&entity=WI.OzEarlyHist.p0013&id=WI.OzEarlyHist&isize=M&pview=hide|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries|access-date=January 11, 2020}}</ref> The earliest settlements formed around grist- and sawmills located on the county's waterways. [[Cedarburg, Wisconsin|Cedarburg]], [[Grafton, Wisconsin|Grafton]], [[Hamilton, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|Hamilton]], [[Newburg, Wisconsin|Newburg]], [[Saukville, Wisconsin|Saukville]], and [[Thiensville, Wisconsin|Thiensville]] all had mills by end of the 1840s. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the county economy was primarily based on agriculture.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

The beginning of the [[American Civil War]] saw some chaos in Ozaukee County. The county was one of the areas affected by Wisconsin's "Great Indian Scare" of September 1862, in which some residents panicked because of unfounded rumors of a Native American uprising in the state. The panic was exacerbated by the fact that 30,000 Wisconsinites were away, serving in the war, so residents may have felt especially vulnerable. Some residents fled their homes for Milwaukee, while others holed up in makeshift fortresses, as happened at the [[Cedarburg Mill]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Early history of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=div&did=WI.OzEarlyHist.i0013&isize=M|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries|access-date=January 1, 2020}}</ref> Several months after the panic, the United States Congress implemented the draft, which was unpopular among German immigrants with bad memories of mandatory conscription in their homelands.<ref>{{cite web|title=Civil War: Draft Riots (1862)|date=August 3, 2012 |url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1803|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=January 4, 2020}}</ref> On November 10, 1862, several hundred Port Washington residents marched on the courthouse, attacked the official in charge of implementing the draft, burned draft records, and vandalized the homes of Union supporters. The riot ended when eight detachments of Union troops from Milwaukee were deployed.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Making of Milwaukee | last = Gurda | first = John | chapter = Chapter 3. Here Come the Germans, 1846–1865 | page = 97 | date = 1999 | publisher = Milwaukee County Historical Society}}</ref>

In the 1870s the [[Milwaukee and Northern Railway Company|Milwaukee & Northern Railway]] was constructed to connect Milwaukee and northern Wisconsin including Green Bay,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=the Railroad – Milwaukee & Northern Railway Historical Society|url=http://www.mnrhs.org/the-railroad/|access-date=May 6, 2021|website=www.mnrhs.org}}</ref> along its route it reached many communities in the center of the county including Thiensville, Cedarburg, Grafton and Saukville.<ref name=":0" /> Around the same time the [[Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway]] constructed its railway on the eastern edge of the county along Lake Michigan, also to connect Milwaukee and Northern Wisconsin.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=December 1, 2003|title=Map of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway {{!}} Map or Atlas|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM91425|access-date=May 6, 2021|website=Wisconsin Historical Society|language=en}}</ref> It reached fewer communities compared to the M&N line, only serving Port Washington.<ref name=":1" /> Regardless the railroads spurred development in Ozaukee County by providing efficient freight and passenger transportation.

===20th century===
From 1908 to 1940, [[the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company]] (TMERL) provided electric [[interurban]] passenger and freight service from Sheboygan to Milwaukee with stops at Belgium, Port Washington, Grafton, Cedarburg, Thiensville, Mequon, and other villages as well as major road crossings within Ozaukee County. The interurban cars ran approximately once per hour and delivered Ozaukee County agricultural products, such as milk and meat, to Milwaukee grocers and butchers. In 1940, the interurban ceased servicing Sheboygan due to declining ridership. Port Washington became the line's new northern terminus<ref>Classic Trains Magazine, Vol 20, No. 2, Summer 2020 issue, p 52.</ref> before the Ozaukee County line ceased operation in 1948.<ref name="ReferenceB" />

Ozaukee County's communities experienced significant population growth during the [[suburbanization]] that followed World War II. Between 1940 and 1980, the population more than tripled, from 18,985 to 66,981. Although the interurban to Milwaukee declined service and finally ceased operation after the war, the construction of [[Interstate 43]] in the mid-1960s allowed more residents to commute long distances to jobs and this encouraged residential home construction.<ref name="ReferenceB" /> Communities that experienced the most significant population growth, such as Cedarburg and Grafton, began to annex agricultural land for residential subdivisions and retail commercial development.<ref>{{cite web|title=Encyclopedia of Milwaukee: Village of Grafton|url=https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/village-of-grafton/|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee|access-date=January 2, 2020}}</ref> The previously rural Town of Mequon became increasingly suburban and incorporated in 1957 as the City of Mequon. Today, it is the largest and most populous city in Ozaukee County.

===21st century===
The [[Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary]] was established in 2021 in the waters of Lake Michigan, with its southern portion lying off roughly the northern half of Ozaukee County′s coastline. The [[National Marine Sanctuary|national marine sanctuary]] is the site of a large number of historically significant [[shipwreck]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/23/2021-12846/wisconsin-shipwreck-coast-national-marine-sanctuary-designation-final-regulations|title=Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Designation; Final Regulations|publisher=NOAA via Federal Register|date=June 23, 2021 |access-date=June 29, 2021}}</ref><ref>[https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/media/docs/wisconsin-shipwreck-coast-national-marine-sanctuary.pdf National Marine Sanctuaries media document: Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Accessed 29 June 2021]</ref><ref>[https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-designates-new-national-marine-sanctuary-in-wisconsin-s-lake-michigan NOAA News "NOAA designates new national marine sanctuary in Wisconsin's Lake Michigan," June 22, 2021 Accessed 29 June 2021]</ref>