Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Menasha, WI

Menasha is a city in Winnebago County (with a portion in Calumet County) at the north end of Lake Winnebago, where the Fox River flows into the lake.

The city's name comes from the Menominee word Menaehsaeh, meaning "little island," and its motto today is "Your Place on the Water."

Menasha was settled in 1835 and moved quickly through incorporation as a town in 1848 and a village in 1853 before becoming a city in 1874.

The 2020 census counted 18,268 people in Menasha living in 7,891 households, and every one of its residents was classified as living in an urban area.

The Menominee people lived in the Fox River Valley for more than 10,000 years, and a Ho-Chunk village called Menashay, led by Chief Four Legs, stood on what is now Doty Island; the Menominee ceded some four million acres, including Menasha, in the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars for about 17 cents an acre.

Menasha shares Doty Island in the Fox River with its twin city, Neenah, and together they anchor the Fox Cities region.

Fox River waterpower made Menasha a paper city: its historic mills included the Gilbert Paper Company, founded in 1886 and known for fine cotton-fiber bond papers, and the John Strange Paper Company, begun in 1881 as a pail and tub factory and among the first in America to make kraft paper for bags and sacks.

Menasha Corporation was founded in the city in 1849 by Elisha D. Smith as Menasha Wooden Ware; it grew into the world's largest manufacturer of wooden ware products like butter tubs and barrels before shifting into corrugated packaging.

The George Banta Publishing Company of Menasha printed textbooks, yearbooks, military manuals and magazines shipped across the country.

The city counts about 11 miles of waterfront, and the Menasha Lock lets boats pass between Lake Winnebago and the Fox River as part of the historic Fox River navigation system.