Pewaukee, Wisconsin
Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The name Pewaukee comes from an Algonquian language, possibly Potawatomi, with various translations offered over the years, including lake of shells and dusty water. What is certain is that Potawatomi, Menominee, Sauk, and Winnebago people used this lake for camping, hunting, and fishing long before white traders arrived. Formal Euro-American settlement began here in the eighteen thirties.
The Wisconsin Territorial Legislature established the town in January of eighteen forty, eight years before statehood. In eighteen seventy-six, part of the original township broke off and incorporated as a village on the lake, giving Waukesha County a small, distinct lakeside community west of Milwaukee.
