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 It's Always Been the Place
Welcome to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!
Lake Geneva is a city in Walworth County, Wisconsin. The population was 7,148 at the 2000 census. A resort city located on Geneva Lake, it is southwest of Milwaukee, and highly popular with tourists, executives and professionals from metropolitan Chicago and Milwaukee, looking for a relaxing and stimulating exurbian lifestyle.
Most of Lake Geneva's residents and their frequent guests are familiar with the many attractions in the Geneva Lakes area: beaches at Library Park and Big Foot State Park, specialty shops and galleries, golfing, boating, hiking the Potawatomi Trail, lake cruises, great food, and lodging services. Many also find hours of enjoyment, year 'round, just wandering throughout the rolling hills and lake and wondering about tales of the early Indians, pioneering white settlers, and how they relate to this modern quaint but active town and its yesteryear homes and buildings.
Its thought that about 18,000 years ago, the last of many glaciers in southeastern Wisconsin retreated to the North after having gorged-out and depressed the local lake basin, leaving a moraine of rolling, gravel hills. Many years following, the ancient Oneota Tribes of the lost Hopewell Culture Indians lived in the Lake Geneva and Walworth and Jefferson County areas. These agricultural peoples enjoyed an advanced civilization on these shores as long ago as 1,000 B. C. The Indians had called the area Kish-Way-Kee-Tow, meaning "clear water." They built effigy mounds in what is now Lake Geneva's Library Park. These effigies of a panther and a lizard were removed several years ago. Eventually, the migrating forest tribes, who were hunters and fierce warriors, drove out the earlier inhabitants. Subsequently, these later Indians were removed by the United States Army to Kansas following the Black Hawk War of 1831-32. Questionable treaty arrangements in 1833 laid the foundation for the eviction of Chief Big Foot and the local Potawatomi Tribe in 1836.
The earliest record of white men migrating to this beautiful expanse of water was a party traveling with the Kinzie family between their army post at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and Fort Winnebago (Portage City) near the Fox and Wisconsin River portage in1831. This area was not on the river and lake highways of the earlier frontier period and thus lay undiscovered. Within a few years John Brink, a government surveyor, laid claim to the waterfall power and adjacent land at the White River outlet to the lake in 1835. He named the lake after the lake in his home in Geneva, New York. To avoid confusion with the nearby town of Geneva, Illinois, the community was renamed Lake Geneva; later the lake was renamed Geneva Lake. (In practice, both forms are used for the lake, but never for the city.)
After the Civil War, Lake Geneva became a resort for wealthy Chicago families. These families began construction of the many mansions on the lake. Visitors included Mary Todd Lincoln and Generals Sherman and Sheridan. The Chicago Fire of 1871 caused many Chicago families to move to their summer homes on the lake while the city was rebuilt. The construction and maintenance of these mansions, as well as household employment, developed a separate industry in the town adding to the milling, furniture, wagon and typewriter manufacturing enterprises. After arrival of the railroad, thousands of tons of Lake Geneva ice were shipped each year to the Chicago market, until the beginning of World War II.
Railroad access from Chicago made the area a popular summer resort, with many large summer homes built on the lake. The city was then known as "The Newport of the West." after the wealthy community in Rhode Island. The city is also known today as "The Hamptons of the Midwest" since during the automobile era the city became a haven for Al Capone and other Chicago mobsters.
Today, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is an attractive and popular vacation spot for those who love the active, pleasant lifestyle of boating, sport fishing, golf, and "mingling." Just outside the city to the east is the Grand Geneva Resort, a former Playboy Club and now home of the Geneva Lakes County Club, featuring three challenging 18-hole golf courses, one each designed by legends Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Gary Player. Many other magnificent courses in the area were originally designed and built by the Foulis brothers whose father, James Sr., was a popular clubmaker at the world-famous St. Andrews in Scotland. The sons emigrated to Chicago in the late 19th-century, eventually building an international reputation with their Lake Geneva designs.
Lake Geneva has hosted various types of races at the Lake Geneva Raceway since 1963. Other games and uniquely engaging recreation are also familiar to Lake Geneva. The hobby game company, TSR, best known for its fantasy games like the popular Dungeons and Dragans, was founded in Lake Geneva, host to TSRs annual gaming convention, Gencon - named for the city - giving Lake Geneva the sobriquet "The Mecca of Roleplaying Games." The 1996 film "Chain Reaction," starring Keanu Reeves, was filmed in Lake Geneva in fall of 1994 and every winter, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, hosts the artistry of the United States National Snow Sculpting Competition during the town's annual Winterfest weekend.
Culture is also a compelling activity in Lake Geneva, home to the Lake Geneva Community Orchestra, one of the largest fully volunteer symphony orchestras in the state of Wisconsin. Many residents and their guests love to ride the lake - wine glasses in hand - on yachts, charters or pontoons to view the incredible mansions that still line its shore.
Contact Lake Geneva's top real estate agent, Robert Diamond, today!
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