Green Bay

City and port in northeastern Wisconsin, USA, where the Little Fox River flows into Green Bay on Lake Michigan; it is the seat of Brown County; population (2000) 102,300. Green Bay is a port of entry to the USA through the St Lawrence Seaway and serves as a distribution centre. One of the most important ports of Wisconsin, it handles some 3 million tonnes of goods annually. Industries include the manufacture of paper, food products, and excavating machinery.

Green Bay was first settled as a French trading post in 1634, and was incorporated as a city in 1854. A Jesuit mission was founded here in 1671, and a French fort (built in 1717) was the centre of a fur-trading community until 1816. After the War of 1812 it passed to the USA, and developed as a timber and agricultural centre. The Green Bay Packers team of the National Football League was organized here in 1919.

The city is the seat of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (1965). Green Bay was an important rail centre in the past and is now the site of the National Railroad Museum.