Sheboygan

Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Nickname(s): Bratwurst Capital of the World[1], The City of Cheese, Chairs & Children[2]
Location of Sheboygan in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Coordinates: 43°45′N 87°44′W / 43.75°N 87.733°W / 43.75; -87.733
County	Sheboygan
Government
- Mayor	Bob Ryan (NP)
Area
- Total	36.4 km2 (14.1 sq mi)
- Land	36.0 km2 (13.9 sq mi)
- Water	0.4 km2 (0.2 sq mi)
Population (2000)
- Total	50,792
- Density	1,409.8/km2 (3,652.4/sq mi)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP codes	53081 & 53083
Area code(s)	920
City of Sheboygan Tourism Division
Website	www.ci.sheboygan.wi.us

Sheboygan is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States.^[3] The population was 50,792 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Sheboygan River, about 50 mi (81 km) north of Milwaukee and 64 mi (103 km) south of Green Bay.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.1 square miles (36.4 km²), of which, 13.9 square miles (36.0 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km²) of it (1.07%) is water. It is located at latitude 43°45' north, longitude 87°44' west.

Demographics

Downtown 8th Street

Downtown 8th Street

Historic Downtown Sheboygan

Sheboygan's downtown looking southeast along N. 8th St., from Mead Public Library's top floor. The city's tallest building, the U.S. Bank Building, is in the background.

As of the census^[4] of 2000, there were 50,792 people, 20,779 households, and 12,799 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,652.4 people per square mile (1,409.8/km²). There were 21,762 housing units at an average density of 1,564.9/sq mi (604.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 87.63% White, 0.86% Black or African American, 0.48% Native American, 6.48% Asian (with many being of Hmong descent), 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.85% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. 5.97% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Many of the residents have German ancestry.

There were 20,779 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.2% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.4% were non-families. 32.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.6% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 96.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,066, and the median income for a family was $47,718. Males had a median income of $35,242 versus $24,690 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,270. About 6.2% of families and 8.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.8% of those under age 18 and 7.0% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Colleges

• University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan
• Lakeland College
• Lakeshore Technical College (Satellite Campus)

High Schools

• Sheboygan Area Lutheran High School
• Sheboygan County Christian High School
• Sheboygan North High School
• Sheboygan South High School

School District

• Sheboygan Area School District

Transportation

Airport

Sheboygan is served by the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, which is located several miles from the city.

Roads

Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city. U.S. Route 141 was the primary north-south route into Sheboygan before Interstate 43 was built, and its former route is a major north-south route through the center of the city that is referred to as Calumet Drive coming into the city from the north, and South Business Drive from the south; between Superior and Georgia Avenues, the highway is known as 14th Street. Four-lane Highway 23 is the primary west route into the city. Other state highways in the city include Highway 42, Highway 28, which both run mostly along the former inner-city routing of U.S. 141. Secondary county highways include County LS to the north; Counties J, O, PP, and EE to the west; and County KK to the south. Sheboygan Transit System provides bus service throughout the city.

Space

Since 1995 Sheboygan has been the site of eight- and twenty-foot tall rocket launches for a local high school program called Rockets for Schools. Sheboygan is also the site of a proposed new spaceport called Spaceport Sheboygan.^[5]

Water

Sheboygan is bounded on the east by Lake Michigan. There are no active ports in the city. The current site of Blue Harbor Resort sits on a peninsula between the lake and the Sheboygan River's last bend that was formerly used by the C. Reiss Coal Company (now a Koch Industries division) as their headquarters and base of operations, where ships would load and unload coal along the peninsula. The company's former headquarters building on North 8th Street is being converted into a condominium development.

The Sheboygan River also passes through the city, but waterfalls upstream in Sheboygan Falls prevent navigation, while tall-masted boats are confined to the river downstream of the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge. Commercial charter fishing boats dock near the mouth of the river.

Water service is provided by the Sheboygan Water Utility, which pumps water into the city via intake pipes which are 1.25 miles out from the Lake Michigan shore north of North Point. The utility also provides water service to portions of the Towns of Sheboygan and Wilson, Kohler, and Sheboygan Falls.

Media

The city's only daily newspaper is The Sheboygan Press, which has been published since 1907. The free papers The Sheboygan Sun and The Beacon are each mailed weekly to area residents and feature classified ads and other local content.

As Sheboygan is located mid-way between Green Bay and Milwaukee, residents of the city can choose from television and radio stations originating within each of those areas. A. C. Nielsen places Sheboygan within the Milwaukee market, although Green Bay stations also report news, events, and weather warnings pertaining to Sheboygan and target the city with advertising.

Arbitron places Sheboygan and Sheboygan County within one radio market, and several stations serve the area. Midwest Communications owns four stations within the county, including talk station WHBL (1330); country station WBFM (93.7); hot AC operation WXER (104.5 from Plymouth, with a translator station on 96.1 in Sheboygan); and Sheboygan Falls-licensed hard rock WHBZ (106.5), all of which transmit from a three-tower site on Sheboygan's south side. ESPN Radio affiliate WCLB (950) also serves the city, along with the Sheboygan Area School District's WSHS (91.7), a member of the Wisconsin Public Radio Ideas Network; Plymouth's WJUB (1420), a standards station; Kiel's WSTM (91.3), and various religious radio stations originating from north of Green Bay and Milwaukee via low-power translator stations.

The city is served by Charter Communications, with public access programming origination from WSCS, which is carried on channel 95 for analog service viewers and 990 for those with digital cable boxes or QAM tuner-compatible sets. The city has one licensed television station, W29DJ, which is currently off the air due to the digital switchover. It previously aired TBN programming. AT&T's U-Verse service is also being rolled out within the city throughout 2008 and 2009.

In media

• The film World Trade Center has a scene set in Sheboygan, showing Sheboygan police officers reacting to the September 11 attacks. A later scene depicts the police officers serving brats to rescue workers at ground zero. The scene is based on the actions of several Sheboygan police officers.
• The city is the site of the board game The Creature that Ate Sheboygan, a 1982 game by the gaming company SPI (now defunct, having been purchased by TSR, Inc.). This name would later be the name of a song by the Leeds-based Dirty Rockabilly Blues band Aces & Eights.

Hospitals

Aurora Sheboygan Medical Center

• Aurora Sheboygan Medical Center
• St. Nicholas Hospital

Notable businesses and points of interest

• Above & Beyond Children's Museum
• Acuity Insurance
• Blue Harbor Resort
• Ellwood H. May Environmental Park
• John Michael Kohler Arts Center
• Sheboygan County Historical Museum
• Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory
• Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts
• Whistling Straits

Acuity flag

• The tallest flagpole in the United States was raised on July 2, 2005 at Acuity Insurance. The steel pole is 338 feet (103 m) high (103 m), 6 feet (1.83 m) wide at the base, weighs 65 tons (without the flag), and is sunk into a 550-ton block of concrete that is 40 feet (12.19m) deep, 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and reinforced by steel rods. The flag is 120 feet (37 m) by 60 feet (36.58 x 18.29 meters), or 7,200 square feet (668.9 square meters). Each star is 4 feet (1.219m) high and each stripe is 4 1/2 feet (1.37m) wide. It weighs 300 pounds (136 kg).^[6] This flag and flagpole outdid an earlier Acuity record, a flag raised June 2, 2003, atop a 150 foot (45.72 m) flagpole. The old pole toppled because of stress during high winds, nearly landing on Interstate 43. The new flagpole was redesigned, and placed much farther from the highway. That flagpole was replaced in October, 2007 with a new pole with a ladder inside to access the navigation beacon. It is also better able to tolerate local weather conditions ^[7][8].
• In April 1896 the schooner Lottie Cooper was wrecked just off Sheboygan in a gale.^[9] The wreckage was found buried in the harbor during the construction of the Harbor Centre Marina. The wreckage was recovered and is now on display in DeLand Park, along Sheboygan's lakefront. The free display is the only one of its kind on the Great Lakes.^[10]

Bratwurst

Sheboygan County is well known for its bratwurst. ^[11] The Sheboygan Jaycees have an annual fund-raising festival called Bratwurst Days, which includes the Johnsonville World Bratwurst Eating Championship.^[12][13] The 2005 contest was part of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. The event was won by professional eating champion Sonya Thomas, who set a world record by eating 34.5 bratwurst in 10 minutes. Footage of the event was aired on ESPN and CNN. The 2006 contest (airing on a same-day tape delay on ESPN2) featured Takeru Kobayashi, who easily broke the record by eating 58 bratwurst. ^[14]

Dairyland Surf Classic

Sheboygan hosts the annual Dairyland Surf Classic, the largest lake surfing competition in the world.^[15][16]

Sister cities

Sheboygan has several sister cities, including Esslingen am Neckar, Germany and Tsubame, Niigata, Japan. Sheboygan has student exchanges with both cities. ^[17]

Awards and rankings

• Sheboygan was recognized by Reader's Digest as "The Best Place to Raise a Family" in the United States in 1995.^[18]

Notable people with ties to Sheboygan

• Ray Buivid, American football player
• The Chordettes, female popular singing quartet
• Jerry Donohue, chemist, major contributor toward DNA identification
• Timothy Hasenstein, painter
• Walter J. Kohler, Jr., Governor of Wisconsin
• Walter J. Kohler, Sr., Governor of Wisconsin
• Wesley Lau, actor
• Rick Majerus, basketball coach
• Anthony Martin, Escape Artist and Daredevil
• Jackie Mason, comedian
• Pat Matzdorf, high jump world record holder
• Don McNeill, early radio host of "The Breakfast Club"^[19]
• Doxie Moore, former NBA head coach for the Sheboygan Red Skins
• Martha Nause, golfer
• Morbid Saint, thrash metal band
• Bill Schroeder, American football player
• E. E. Smith, science fiction author
• Adolphus Frederic St. Sure, judge
• Edward Voigt, U.S. Representative

Images

Wreck of the Lottie Cooper	8th Street Sheboygan in the 1890s, featuring a man on a dead horse	Sheboygan Post Office, a registered historic place (RHP)	Garton Toy Factory, a RHP
Jung Carriage Building, a RHP	Sheboygan Theater, a RHP	Alliant Energy's Edgewater Generation Station, a prominent coal-fired power plant on city's south side. In the foreground is a portion of the city's wastewater treatment plant

References

See also

• Sheboygan County
• Sheboygan Area School District
• The Creature That Ate Sheboygan

External links

• City of Sheboygan
• Sheboygan Shores (The City of Sheboygan Tourism Division)
• Sheboygan History Website

• Sheboygan, Wisconsin is at coordinates 43°44′59″N 87°43′30″W / 43.749694°N 87.725013°W / 43.749694; -87.725013 (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)Coordinates: 43°44′59″N 87°43′30″W / 43.749694°N 87.725013°W / 43.749694; -87.725013 (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)
• Sheboygan Police Department

v • d • e Sheboygan, Wisconsin Surrounding communities (under 10,000) Herman* | Howards Grove‡ | Kohler‡ | Oostburg‡ | Sheboygan Falls° | Sheboygan* | Wilson* Counties Sheboygan County *town ‡village °city

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin County seat: Sheboygan Cities Plymouth | Sheboygan | Sheboygan Falls Villages Adell | Cascade | Cedar Grove | Elkhart Lake | Glenbeulah | Howards Grove | Kohler | Oostburg | Random Lake | Waldo Towns Greenbush | Herman | Holland | Lima | Lyndon | Mitchell | Mosel | Plymouth | Rhine | Russell | Scott | Sheboygan | Sheboygan Falls | Sherman | Wilson Unincorporated communities Batavia | Haven | Johnsonville | St. Anna

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