24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Kaukauna, WI

Kaukauna is a city on the Fox River in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, with a small portion extending into Calumet County, about 100 miles north of Milwaukee.

The name Kaukauna comes from a Native American word variously translated as "portage," "long portage" and "place where pickerel are caught," referring to the fish below the river's roughly 50-foot drop of rapids.

The first recorded land deed in Wisconsin was made at Kaukauna in 1793, when Dominique Ducharme obtained about 1,281 acres from the Menominee in exchange for two barrels of rum and other gifts.

Kaukauna was settled in 1793 and incorporated as a city in 1885, growing from a French and Menominee fur-trading outpost led by families such as the Grignons.

The 2020 census counted 17,089 people in Kaukauna living in 6,833 households, and the city is part of the Appleton metropolitan area.

The Grignon Mansion, built in 1837 by Charles A. Grignon as a wedding gift for his bride Mary Elizabeth Meade and known to travelers as "The Mansion in the Woods," is now a museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kaukauna was long called "The Lion on the Fox," but after its hydroelectric plant was completed the nickname changed to "The Electric City."

The Fox River divides Kaukauna into a North Side and a South Side connected by four bridges, and the Kaukauna Locks Historic District preserves the canal locks that let boats bypass the rapids.

Kaukauna's paper-making heritage began with the Oscar Thilmany paper mill, built in 1883; the mill still operates on the river today under the Ahlstrom name.

The Kaukauna Area School District enrolls nearly 4,000 students, and Kaukauna High School's teams are famously known as the Galloping Ghosts.