Port Washington, Wisconsin
Port Washington is the county seat of Ozaukee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on Lake Michigan's western shore east of Interstate 43, the community is a suburb in the Milwaukee metropolitan area north of the City of Milwaukee. The city's artificial harbor at the mouth of Sauk Creek was dredged in the 1870s and was a commercial port until the early 2000s. The population was 12,353 at the 2020 census. When French explorers arrived in the area in the 17th century, they found a Native American village at the mouth of Sauk Creek—the present location of historic downtown Port Washington. The United States Federal Government forcibly expelled the Native Americans in the 1830s, and the first settlers arrived in 1835, calling their settlement "Wisconsin City" before renaming it "Port Washington" in honor of President George Washington. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, the community was a candidate to be the Washington County seat. Disagreements between municipalities and election fraud prevented Washington County from having a permanent seat of government until the Wisconsin State Legislature intervened, creating Ozaukee County out of the eastern third of Washington County and making Port Washington the seat of the new county.