The History of Wausau, Wisconsin.
Becoming "Wausau"
30 years before becoming a city, Wausau had been a tiny settlement of a few boarding houses and a saw mill or two. The location on the Wisconsin River had been chosen because of the strong rapids, which earlier explorers had decided to name Big Bull Falls, which became the name associated with the encampment there.
In the 1850s, after Marathon County was created, the community of Big Bull Falls was chosen as the County Seat. The earlier city leaders decided to pick a different name to represent their growing community. Wausau became the Ojibwe "Waasa", an idiom that meant "distant or far away place" and was said to have been the name used by the Native Americans for Big Bull Falls. But whether the Chippewa actually knew the place as "wassa", the translation certainly resonated with the early settlers. They probably felt like their isolated lumbering camp, their home, was at the very edge of the world.
Twenty years later, the small lumbering camp in the Wisconsin Northwoods had grown to become a City, and it would continue to grow as a truly special community. By 1872, Wausau had become home to millionaire lumber barons and humble laborers alike. They city was still very interested in harvesting the lumber reserves of the Great White Pinery, but there were new industries emerging. Families came together to build churches, created schools for their children and gathered at beer gardens, opera houses and halls built across the city. In these places, one could hear different dialects of German, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and even the native English speakers had accents with Southern drawls or Scottish Lilts. Through their hard work, civic enthusiasm and ingenuity, Wausauites have made this "distant" logging town become connected to the wider Midwest as a leader in industry, culture, and recreation in Wisconsin.
30 years before becoming a city, Wausau had been a tiny settlement of a few boarding houses and a saw mill or two. The location on the Wisconsin River had been chosen because of the strong rapids, which earlier explorers had decided to name Big Bull Falls, which became the name associated with the encampment there.
In the 1850s, after Marathon County was created, the community of Big Bull Falls was chosen as the County Seat. The earlier city leaders decided to pick a different name to represent their growing community. Wausau became the Ojibwe "Waasa", an idiom that meant "distant or far away place" and was said to have been the name used by the Native Americans for Big Bull Falls. But whether the Chippewa actually knew the place as "wassa", the translation certainly resonated with the early settlers. They probably felt like their isolated lumbering camp, their home, was at the very edge of the world.
Twenty years later, the small lumbering camp in the Wisconsin Northwoods had grown to become a City, and it would continue to grow as a truly special community. By 1872, Wausau had become home to millionaire lumber barons and humble laborers alike. They city was still very interested in harvesting the lumber reserves of the Great White Pinery, but there were new industries emerging. Families came together to build churches, created schools for their children and gathered at beer gardens, opera houses and halls built across the city. In these places, one could hear different dialects of German, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and even the native English speakers had accents with Southern drawls or Scottish Lilts. Through their hard work, civic enthusiasm and ingenuity, Wausauites have made this "distant" logging town become connected to the wider Midwest as a leader in industry, culture, and recreation in Wisconsin.
