Business View Magazine - November 2016

104 Business View Magazine - November 2016 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Envisioning tomorrow Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is a city of about 43,000 on the southern shore of Lake Winnebago, the second largest freshwater, inland lake in the country. The name Fond du Lac is a French term meaning “Foot of the Lake,” i.e. its southernmost tip. The area that be- came Fond du Lac County was first inhabited by Native American tribes, primarily the Winnebagos, but also the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and Mascoutin who lived or gathered in the area long before European explor- ers arrived. It was settled by French traders at the end of the 18th century. The town of Fond du Lac was founded in the 1830s. Its first school was built in 1843; the first railroad came in 1852, the year that the city incorporated. By 1870, it was the state’s second largest city. Logging and mill- ing were primary industries into the late 1800s, with access to Lake Winnebago as the main driver of com- merce. By the turn of the twentieth century, the logging boom had run its course in Fond du Lac with many mills either having moved on or shut down. However, in the early 20th century, the city still continued to be a commercial center for agricultural products from the surrounding area. Since the late 1930s, the largest employer in Fond du Lac has been Mercury Marine, a maker of outboard motor engines and one of the world’s leading providers of marine propulsion.