Menasha is located at the mouth of the Fox River on the northern tip of Lake Winnebago in Winnebago County. The city nearly surrounds all of Little Lake Butte des Morts and Doty Island is located partially in Menasha. Mrs. Doty, the wife of territorial governor James Duane Doty (1799-1865), named the site after the Native American word for "The Island."

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Boats at Menasha Locks

Menasha, Wisconsin. People on recreational boats wait for the Menasha Locks to open into the Fox River. View the original source document: WHI 24569

Ancestors of the Ho-Chunk Indians lived on the island for centuries prior to white settlement and built conical effigy mounds. In the 1600s, the Fox Indians established a village just north of Menasha from which they collected a toll from every canoe that passed. A sneak attack on the Indians initiated by French soldiers and traders resulted in the death of nearly all the Fox Indians in the area. They are said to have piled the bodies in a large mound that became known as Butte des Morts, or "Hill of the Dead." The mound was a prominent landmark until it was destroyed by the construction of the railroad in 1863.

White settlers came to Menasha as early as 1835 and it was incorporated as a city in 1874. The city became a center for wooden ware products using water power provided by the river. The Menasha Wooden Ware Company was, at one time, the world's largest producer of wooden ware products. In later years, companies switched from wood products to paper manufacturing.

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Menasha, Wisconsin

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Source: WHS Library-Archives Staff, 2009