GREEN BAY

GREEN BAY is a city in Wisconsin at the mouth of the Fox River on Green Bay inlet, separated from Lake Michigan by the Door Peninsula. Originally called La Baye and La Baye des Puans by the French explorers who came there in the 1630s, the settlement was renamed Green Bay in 1839 after it was merged with a trading post. It is the oldest settlement in the state. The area served as a French trading post and fort during conflicts with the British and had permanent settlers only sporadically until 1745, when the trading post there became permanent. Situated at the end of the Fox River system of portages to the Mississippi River, the settlement was particularly attractive to settlers after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The settlers platteda village in 1829 and incorporated Green Bay as a city in 1854. It served as a major port for lumbering from about 1850 and, from 1890, as a

processing site for dairy, agricultural goods, and paper products. The city has a total land area of 43.9 square miles. Its population rose from 87,899 in 1980 to 96,466 in 1990 and 102,313 in 2000. Green Bay, like many other northern cities, has continued to experience growth despite its location in the Rust Belt.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Martin, Deborah B. History of Brown County, Wisconsin, Past and Present. 2 vols. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1913.

Thompson, William Fletcher, ed. The History of Wisconsin. 3 vols. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973–1985.

Matthew L.Daley

See alsoWisconsin .