Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Cedarburg, WI

Cedarburg is a city in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb located about 20 miles north of downtown Milwaukee near Interstate 43.

The city's name means "cedar castle" or "fortress of the cedars" — German settler Frederick Leuning called his 1843 cabin on Cedar Creek the "Cedarburg" after the white cedars growing on its banks, and residents adopted the name in December 1844.

Cedarburg began as a mill town: German immigrants built hydropowered gristmills and woolen mills along Cedar Creek in the 1840s, and five dams and mills eventually lined the creek in the city and town.

The five-story stone Cedarburg Mill, built in 1855 to replace the original 1845 wooden gristmill, still anchors the downtown as its focal point.

The 1864 Hilgen and Wittenberg Woolen Mill was the largest woolen mill west of Philadelphia; saved from demolition in 1972, the building now houses the Cedar Creek Settlement shops, restaurants and a winery.

Cedarburg incorporated as a city in 1885, when its population was approximately 1,000; at the 2020 census it had grown to 12,121 residents living in 5,123 households.

More than 200 historic buildings have been preserved in Cedarburg, and the city holds eight listings on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Washington Avenue Historic District — added in 1986 — with more than 100 historically significant buildings.

The Hilgen Spring Mound Site in the eastern part of the city, dated by radiocarbon samples to about 480 BCE, is one of the oldest Native American mound groups in Wisconsin.

Hilgen Spring Park, a 74-acre European-style spa resort begun in 1854, drew visitors from all over the Midwest and made Cedarburg an early tourist destination.

The 30-mile Ozaukee Interurban Trail passes through historic downtown Cedarburg, following the corridor of the interurban railway that served the city until 1948.