Fond du Lac

Town and administrative headquarters of Fond du Lac County, southeastern Wisconsin; population (2000) 42,200. It is situated at the southern end of Lake Winnebago, 29 km/18 mi south-southeast of Oshkosh and 88 km/55 mi northwest of Milwaukee, at the mouth of the Fond du Lac River. Industries include dairy farming and tourism. Precision tools, machinery, motor-vehicle parts, machine tools, outboard motors, and snowmobiles are manufactured in the town. Fond du Lac also serves as the trading centre of a dairy farming region; cheese and other dairy products are processed here and animal feed is also produced.

US pioneers began settling the area in 1838, though French explorers and missionaries had been here c. 1670, and a French trading post had been established here in 1785. Lumbering and milling formed the early basis of its economy. As the supply of timber declined, farming and manufacturing grew in importance.