Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States

🇺🇸 Manitowoc is a city in and the county seat of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The city is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Manitowoc River.

History Purported to mean dwelling of the great spirit, Manitowoc derived its name from either the Ojibwe word manidoowaak(wag), meaning spirit-spawn(s), or manidoowaak(oog), meaning spirit-wood(s), or manidoowak(iin), meaning spirit-land(s). In the Menominee language, it is called Manetōwak, which means "place of the spirits". The Menominee ceded this land to the United States in the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars, following years of negotiations over how to accommodate the Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Brothertown peoples who had been removed from New York to Wisconsin. In 1838, an act of the Territorial Legislature separated Manitowoc County from Brown County, keeping the native name for the region.

The first Europeans in the area were French fur traders who arrived in 1673. The Northwest Fur Company established a trading post in 1795. In 1835, before the transfer of land from the Menominee Nation to the United States, President Andrew Jackson authorized land sales for the region, drawing the interest of land speculators. William Jones and Louis Fizette were the two first recorded buyers on August 3, 1835, with the majority of the land being procured by the Chicago firm Jones, King, & Co. Benjamin Jones, brother of William, took the Wisconsin property as his share and is considered the founder of Manitowoc. Early immigrant groups included Germans, Norwegians, British, Irish, and Canadians.

The first school in Manitowoc was held in the Jones warehouse, with S. M. Peake instructing the twelve children of the community. The first religious organization in the county, St. James' Episcopal Church, first met in 1841. Manitowoc was chartered as a village on March 6, 1851 and on March 12, 1870, was incorporated as a city. Manitowoc replaced neighboring Manitowoc Rapids as the county seat of Manitowoc County in 1853. The current Manitowoc County Courthouse was built in the city in 1906.

In 1847, Joseph Edwards built the first schooner in the area, the Citizen, a modest precursor to the shipbuilding industry that produced schooners and clippers used for fishing and trading in the Great Lakes and beyond the St. Lawrence River. In addition, landing craft, tankers and submarines became the local contributions to U.S. efforts in World War II.

On September 5, 1962, a 20-pound (9.1 kg) piece of the seven-ton Sputnik 4 crashed on North 8th Street. Sputnik 4 was a USSR satellite, part of the Sputnik program and a test-flight of the Vostok spacecraft that would be used for the first human spaceflight. It was launched on May 15, 1960.

A bug in the guidance system had pointed the capsule in the wrong direction, so instead of dropping into the atmosphere the satellite moved into a higher orbit. It re-entered the atmosphere on or about September 5, 1962. A cast was made from the original piece before the Soviets claimed it, and the cast was displayed at the Rahr West Art Museum. A customer in a nearby art gallery jokingly suggested that the city should hold a festival to celebrate the crash. The city held the first Sputnikfest in 2008, which was organized by the head of both museums.

Manitowoc was historically a sundown town that prohibited African Americans from staying overnight. In 1968, the policy forced a visiting Gwendolyn Brooks to stay at Holy Family College, just outside of Manitowoc, after a poetry reading.

Manitowoc is home to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, and is one endpoint of the ferry route of the SS Badger, which connects U.S. Route 10 to Ludington, Michigan.

Since the late 1990s, several new shopping centres have opened in the city, mostly on the south-west side of the city along Interstate 43, including the new Harbor Town Center shopping complex. The downtown area has also seen a resurgence, with several new restaurants opening, and the recent announcement of new $100,000+ condominiums on the Manitowoc River, along with a completion of the riverwalk trail. The bulk of the redevelopment in the city has been undertaken by the public/private partnership the Manitowoc County Economic Development Corporation.

In December 2022, Manitowoc was designated Wisconsin's World War II Heritage City by the US National Park Service.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.99 square miles (46.59 km²), of which 17.63 square miles (45.66 km²) is land and 0.36 square miles (0.93 km²) is water.

The city is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Manitowoc River.

The nearest other cities are Green Bay, 34 miles (55 km) away, Sheboygan 24 miles (39 km) away, Appleton 39 miles (63 km) away, and Milwaukee 74 miles (119 km) away. Together with Two Rivers and the surrounding towns, the Manitowoc micropolitan area was, according to the 2000 census, home to 52,197 people. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureau's Manitowoc Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Manitowoc County (2000 population: 82,887).

Alverno Alverno is a formerly unincorporated community located in the western parts of the city. Located slightly north-west of the I-43 Technology & Enterprise Business Park, the community contained some homes, a banquet place, and a railroad crossing on the northern side. The community is also the eastern terminus of a short county highway (County Road CS) at the intersection of Alverno Road and Custer Street.

Kellners Corners Kellners Corners is also a formerly unincorporated community on the north-west side of the city at the intersection of Rapids Road (County Road R) and Menasha Avenue. This portion of Manitowoc is more residential with some businesses. Rapids Road was also the old alignment of US Highway 141 in Manitowoc until the completion of I-43 resulted in the portion of the old highway turned over to the county.

Government The city government consists of a mayor and a city council with 10 members elected from single member districts. The current mayor is Justin Nickels.

Business and industry • The Manitowoc Company, founded in Manitowoc but now headquartered in Milwaukee, grew out of the shipbuilding industry. It is a diversified manufacturer with interests in the construction and food service industries. The acquisition of Grove Crane resulted in the relocation of crane manufacturing to Shady Grove, Pennsylvania, ending its crane manufacturing operations in Manitowoc. • The city is the world headquarters of Lakeside Foods Company, and Bio-Blend Fuels. • Burger Boat Company, a yacht builder is located in Manitowoc and produces approximately 2–3 yachts each year. • Baileigh Industrial, a manufacturer of metal fabrication and woodworking machines. • Orion Energy Systems, specialising in energy-efficient commercial fluorescent and solar lighting.

Health care The Manitowoc area is served by two main medical groups: • Holy Family Memorial with an inpatient medical centre and more than 15 clinics in the county. • Aurora Health Care with one main campus in Two Rivers, and several dozen health clinics throughout the county.

Education Manitowoc public schools are administered by the Manitowoc Public School District. High schools within the city include: • Lincoln High School • Roncalli High School • Manitowoc Lutheran High School

Colleges The city has two colleges and universities within its limits: the University of Wisconsin–Manitowoc and Lakeshore Technical College. Holy Family College closed in 2020.

Media: Print • Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter—Daily newspaper owned by Gannett Newspapers. • Lakeshore Chronicle—Printed on Sundays and Wednesdays only. Also owned by Gannett Newspapers.

Television and radio Manitowoc is part of the Green Bay television market, although it is common for residents to receive stations over-the-air from Milwaukee, and across the lake from the Grand Rapids and Traverse City/Cadillac markets. No television stations originate from Manitowoc, and the only full-time presence of Green Bay stations in the city are remote-operated weather cameras and WFRV-TV featuring some Herald Times Reporter content in newscasts as part of a promotional agreement with Gannett's north-eastern Wisconsin newspapers.

Comcast holds the city's cable franchise, inherited from the company's earlier purchase of Jones Intercable, and the city has the only presence of Comcast or Xfinity in the state of Wisconsin.

Manitowoc is classed as part of Nielsen Audio's Sheboygan/Manitowoc radio market and combined with Two Rivers, and stations from both Sheboygan and Green Bay are easily heard in the area. Since 2017, Seehafer Broadcasting has owned all six commercial radio stations broadcasting towards and licensed to Manitowoc and Two Rivers (several other stations are licensed to Manitowoc County communities, but they all instead target Green Bay and the Fox Cities).

Religion The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity have their mother house in Manitowoc.

In 2005 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay merged several Catholic parishes in the city into one parish, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, with a 4-man pastoral team led by Father Dan Felton. In 2005, the Herald Times Reporter reported that the city has roughly 22,000 Roman Catholics.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is a significant Christian synod in the city with four large churches and Manitowoc Lutheran High School. Two additional Wisconsin Synod churches are outside the city limits with a Manitowoc address.

St. James' is an historic Episcopal church in the city.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a meetinghouse in Manitowoc.

Points of interest • The Rahr West Art Museum is housed in a 19th-century mansion near downtown Manitowoc. Donated by the Rahr family in 1941 for use as a community civic art centre, it has been since expanded numerous times. The Museum currently houses art ranging from the 15th–21st centuries, with paintings, sculptures, and a preserved Victorian home in its possession. • The Wisconsin Maritime Museum was founded in 1970 as the Manitowoc Submarine Memorial Association, and has since grown to be one of the largest nautical museums in the country; it has recently been granted affiliation status with the Smithsonian. It has over 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m²) of interactive and standing exhibits exploring maritime history with a particular emphasis on the Great Lakes. Perhaps the Museum's crown jewel however is the World War II era USS Cobia, an authentic combat submarine similar to those built in Manitowoc during the war. There are daily tours of the vessel, which is moored in Manitowoc's harbor, allowing visitors a look at Manitowoc's role in the war and building 28 submarines for the U.S. Navy. • The Lincoln Park Zoo is a year-round zoo and is part of the Manitowoc Parks and Recreation Department. The Lincoln Park Zoo has tours and educational programs available for small and large groups. • The Eighth Street Historic District encompasses the city's historic downtown and includes many buildings from the 1850s-1930s, including the beaux-arts style Manitowoc County Courthouse. • The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, established in 2021 and the site of a large number of historically significant shipwrecks, lies in the waters of Lake Michigan off Manitowoc.

Transport Public transportation in the city been provided by Maritime Metro Transit since 1978, covering both Manitowoc and Two Rivers, Wisconsin. MMT currently has a fleet of 12 buses serving over 40 stops on 8 routes.

Manitowoc is the western port for the S.S. Badger ferry, that crosses Lake Michigan to Ludington, Michigan. The ferry ride is part of the route of U.S. Route 10.

The Manitowoc Mariners Trail is a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) paved recreational trail running along the shore of Lake Michigan between the cities of Manitowoc and Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Transport: Road • I-43 northbound connects to Green Bay and southbound connects to Sheboygan, Milwaukee, and Beloit. • US 10 travels east across Lake Michigan via the SS Badger to Ludington, Michigan, and west to Appleton. • US 151 southbound connects to Chilton and Fond Du Lac. • WIS 42 travels southward to Howards Grove and Sheboygan and northward to Sturgeon Bay, Two Rivers and Kewaunee.

Transport: Air Manitowoc County Airport (KMTW) serves the city and surrounding communities.