Portage, Wisconsin

Portage is a city in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat of Columbia County. As of the 2020 census, 10,581 people lived in Portage. It is the largest city in Columbia County. The city is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Portage was named for the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway. It is a portage between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River. It was found by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet during their discovery of a route to the Mississippi River in 1673. The slogan of the city is "Where the North Begins."

Portage is the largest city outside of Dane County in the Madison Metropolitan Area.

 Geography 
Portage is in the Wisconsin River valley. The city is surrounded by prairies and grasslands.

The city has a total area of . Of this,  is land and  is water.

 History 
The Native American tribes that once lived here, and the European settlers that moved here later, used the lowlands between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers as a natural "portage". The French fur traders called the place "le portage". This later became the name of the community. As a portage, this community grew as a center of commerce and trade. Later, a canal was built to support this trade.

By the end of the 17th century, the Fox-Wisconsin waterway was the major fur trade path between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. In the 1780s and 1790s, traders built their warehouses at each end of The Portage.  In the early 19th century, Portage was mostly populated by Metis.Jaqueline Peterson and Jennifer S. H. Brown, The New Peoples, p. 44  In 1828, the federal government saw the economic importance of The Portage. They  built Fort Winnebago at the Fox River end. Portage became the county seat in 1851.  The community incorporated as Portage City in 1854.

 Notable people 
 Walt Ambrose, NFL player
 Peter J. Boylan, U.S. Army general, President of Georgia Military College
 Ben Brancel, Wisconsin politician
 Maureen Brunt, U.S. Olympian
 Guy W.S. Castle, Medal of Honor recipient
 Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer
 Zona Gale, writer, Pulitzer Prize winner
 Charles W. Henney, U.S. Representative
 John Edward Kelley, U.S. Representative from South Dakota
 Margery Latimer, writer
 John Muir, naturalist
 Russell W. Peterson, former Governor of Delaware
 Mike Thompson, NFL player
 Frederick Jackson Turner, historian, Pulitzer Prize winner

Images

 References 

 Other websites 

 City of Portage 
 Portage Chamber of Commerce 
 Portage Canal Society - History 
 Portage History 

Category:Cities in Wisconsin
Category:Columbia County, Wisconsin
Category:County seats in Wisconsin
Category:1854 establishments in Wisconsin