page_title: Saukville, Wisconsin
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saukville, Wisconsin / History
caption_attribution_description: The Payne Hotel, an early stagecoach inn. Registered Historic Place, Saukville, Wisconsin.
context_page_description: Saukville is a village in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. Located on the Milwaukee River with a district along Interstate 43, the community is a suburb in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 4,451 at the 2010 census.
  Downtown Saukville was the site of a Native American village at the crossroads of two trails before white settlers arrived in the mid-1840s. In its early years, the community was a stagecoach stop on the road from Milwaukee to Green Bay and also grew as a mill and market town serving the dairy farmers of northwestern Ozaukee County. The village incorporated in 1915 and later in the 20th Century grew into a suburban community with a manufacturing-based economy. As of 2019, more than 40% of the village's jobs were in manufacturing, with the largest employers being a steel mill as well as several foundries and metal fabricators.
  The village and the neighboring Town of Saukville are rich in biodiverse bogs and coniferous swamps, the largest of which is the 2,200-acre Cedarburg Bog State Natural Area. The area's bogs are a habitat for endangered species, many types of birds, and carnivorous plants.
context_section_description: Saukville was the site of a Native American village at the crossroads of two trails, one of which became the north-south Green Bay Road and the other the east-west Dekora Road. Also located on the banks of the Milwaukee River, the village's inhabitants were probably Menominee and Sauk people. The Native Americans were forced to leave Wisconsin in the 1830s, and white settlers arrived in the area around 1845 and began to build along Green Bay Road.
  Saukville was part of the town of Port Washington until 1848 when the town of Saukville was established. In that year, William Payne opened a stagecoach inn for travelers on the route from Milwaukee to Green Bay. The Payne Hotel still stands today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1848, several residents constructed a dam on the Milwaukee River and later built a saw mill and a grist mill. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Saukville was a rural community with many dairy farmers.
  In 1871, a rail line was constructed in the community. It would eventually become part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.
  In 1915, the village of Saukville officially incorporated with a vote of 66 in favor and 40 opposed. At that time, the village had a population of 376 people.
  In 1945, sixty German prisoners of war from Camp Fredonia in Little Kohler, Wisconsin were contracted to work at Canned Goods, Inc. in the village to make up for the loss of labor due to local men fighting in World War II.
  Saukville experienced significant population growth following World War II. Between 1950 and 1980, the village population increased five-times over, from 699 to 3,494. The construction of Interstate 43 in the mid-1960s connected Saukville to other communities, such as Milwaukee and Sheboygan.
caption: The Payne Hotel stagecoach stop, constructed in 1848
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