Appleton () is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Outagamie County, Wisconsin Outagamie County ( ) is a county in the Fox Cities region of the U.S. state of Wisconsin, in the northeast of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 190,705. Its county seat is Appleton. Outagamie County is part of the Appleton ...

, United States, with small portions extending into Calumet and Winnebago counties. Located on the Fox River, it lies southwest of Green Bay and north of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. Appleton had a population of 75,644 at the 2020 census, making it the sixth-most populous city in Wisconsin. It is the principal city of the Appleton metropolitan statistical area, which had 243,147 residents in 2020 and is part of the broader Fox Cities region. Appleton serves as the heart of the Fox River Valley, which is home to

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a Private college, private liberal arts college and Music school, conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second colle ...

, the Fox Cities Exhibition Center, Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Fox River Mall, Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Appleton International Airport, and the Valley's two major hospitals: St. Elizabeth Hospital and ThedaCare Regional Medical Center–Appleton. It also hosts regional events such as Octoberfest and the Mile of Music.

History

Native American history

The territory where Appleton is today was formerly occupied by the

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hocąk, Hoocągra, or Winnebago are a Siouan languages, Siouan-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois ...

and the

Menominee The Menominee ( ; meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recognized tribe of Na ...

. The Menominee Nation ceded the territory to the United States in the Treaty of the Cedars in 1836. In the Menominee language, Appleton is known as ''Ahkōnemeh'', or "watches for them place". The first European settlers in Appleton were fur traders seeking to do business with Fox River Valley Native Americans. Hippolyte Grignon built the White Heron in 1835 to house his family and serve as an inn and trading post.

European settlement

Appleton was settled in 1847. It was founded as three unincorporated villages along the Fox River. From south to north along the river, these were Grand Chute, Appleton, and Lawesburg. In 1853, the three were merged into the single incorporated Village of Appleton. John F. Johnston was the first resident and village president.

, also founded in 1847, was backed financially by Amos A. Lawrence and originally known as the Lawrence Institute. Samuel Appleton, Lawrence's father-in-law from

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

who never visited Wisconsin, donated $10,000 to the newly founded college library, and the town took his name in appreciation. The paper industry, beginning with the building of the first paper mill in the city in 1853, has been at the forefront of the development of Appleton. In order to provide electricity to the paper industry, the nation's first hydro-electric central station, the

Vulcan Street Plant The Vulcan Street Plant was the first Edison hydroelectric central station.Fox River, began operation on September 30, 1882. The power plant also powered the Hearthstone House, the first residence in the world powered by a centrally located

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

station using the Edison system."Victorian Christmas"
'' Beloit Daily News'', December 15, 2005 Shortly thereafter, in August 1886, Appleton was the site for another national first, the operation of a commercially successful electric

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

company. Electric lights replaced gas lamps on College Avenue in 1912. Appleton also had the first

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

in Wisconsin, and the first incandescent light in any city outside of the East Coast. The community was incorporated as a city on March 2, 1857, with Amos Story as its first mayor. Early in the 20th century, it adopted the

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

form of government. In 1890, 11,869 people lived in Appleton; in 1900, there were 15,085; in 1910, 16,773; in 1920, 19,571; and in 1940, 28,436. Significant annexations to the city, taken from the Town of Grand Chute, were performed in the next two decades. The first, the "Glendale" district, was completed on November 8, 1941, growing Appleton north past Glendale Avenue. Another became official on December 22, 1950, after multi-year disputes, when the unincorporated villages of Bell Heights and Whispering Pines were annexed into the city from Grand Chute. Bell Heights added new area to the northwest edge of Appleton, and Whispering Pines, to the northeast, would include land where Appleton Memorial Hospital would later be built. Bell Heights and Whispering Pines increased the population of the city by ten percent, and its area by twenty percent, overnight. Appleton's tallest building, the 222 Building was built in 1952. The Valley Fair Shopping Center, built in 1954, laid claim to being the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States, although this claim is disputed by other malls. In 2007 most of the structure was demolished, leaving only its east wing and a movie theater. A Pick 'n Save Food Center now stands in its place. From approximately 1930–1970, Appleton was a

sundown town Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States. They were towns that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combinati ...

black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...

were not allowed to stay overnight, and none lived within its city limits by 1930. In 1936, the Institute of Paper Chemistry tried to hire the famous African-American chemist Percy Julian, but could not figure out how to do this without running afoul of what was stated as "an arcane law on the City of Appleton's books". A fight over Julian's employment ensued, and he was hired by Glidden in Chicago instead. Appleton's sundown status was largely de facto and not

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...

; it stood by unwritten consensus and enforcement, such as by police strongly encouraging black people to leave town after dark. A partial exception was made for opera singer

Marian Anderson Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United S ...

when she sang at Lawrence University in 1941; she was allowed to stay overnight in the Conway Hotel, but even then was not allowed to eat dinner in public. Following the

Flint water crisis The Flint water crisis was a public health crisis from 2014 to 2019 which involved the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, being contaminated with lead and possibly ''Legionella'' bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, ...

, a report of Wisconsin

Rust Belt The Rust Belt, formerly the Steel Belt or Factory Belt, is an area of the United States that underwent substantial Deindustrialization, industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is centered in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (Uni ...

cities showed high levels of lead contamination in the water of Appleton, with children under the age of 1 testing positive for lead. With a state average of 1.9 per 100 for this age group, Appleton tested at 4.5 per 100 for the same age group.

Geography

Appleton Locks 1-3 Historic District September 2013

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.

Climate

Appleton has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

typical of Wisconsin. Summers are warm to hot and winters are rather cold in comparison. Precipitation is relatively moderate compared to other areas close to the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

, which means lesser snowfall in winter than in many other cold areas. A

dew point The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to produce a relative humidity of 100%. This temperature depends on the pressure and water content of the air. When the air at a temperature above the ...

of was observed at Appleton at 5 p.m. on July 13, 1995. This is tied for the second highest dew point ever observed in the United States and coincides with the

1995 Chicago heat wave The July 1995 Chicago heat wave led to 739 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a period of five days. Most of the victims of the heat wave were elderly poor residents of the city, who did not have air conditioning, or had air conditioning but co ...

. Being inland from

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

, Appleton is prone to temperature extremes. The hottest temperature recorded was during the 1936

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...

and the coldest was in 1929. The coldest maximum on record is set in 1994 and the warmest minimum being in 1912. On average, the coldest maximum temperature of the year during the normals between 1991 and 2020 was at a frigid and the warmest minimum averaged .

Demographics

Appleton is the principal city of the Appleton–Oshkosh–Neenah CSA, a Combined Statistical Area which includes the Appleton (Calumet and Outagamie counties) and Oshkosh–Neenah ( Winnebago County) metropolitan areas, which had a combined population of 392,660 at the 2010 censusAnnual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019
U.S.Census. Retrieved November 23, 2021 and an estimated population of 409,881 as of 2019. According to the 2020 census, 62,899 of the city's population lived in Outagamie County, 11,304 lived in Calumet County, and 1,441 lived in Winnebago County.

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, the city's population was 75,644. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 31,747 housing units at an average density of . Ethnically, the population was 7.3%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. When grouping both Hispanic and non-Hispanic people together by race, the city was 80.1%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 6.4% Asian, 3.13%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.9% Native American, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 3.2% from other races, and 6.5% from two or more races. The 2020 census population of the city included 318 people incarcerated in adult correctional facilities and 1,275 people in student housing. According to the

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

estimates for 2016–2020, the median income for a household in the city was $61,475, and the median income for a family was $76,791. Male full-time workers had a median income of $51,431 versus $41,564 for female workers. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $33,282. About 7.8% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 15.8% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. Of the population age 25 and over, 92.6% were high school graduates or higher and 33.6% had a bachelor's degree or higher.

2010 census

As of the 2010

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, there were 72,623 people, 28,874 households, and 18,271 families residing in the city. The

was . There were 30,348 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 87.5%

, 1.7%

, 0.7% Native American, 5.9% Asian, 2.2% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races.

or Latino people of any race were 5.0% of the population. There were 28,874 households, of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.7% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.04. The median age in the city was 35.3 years. 25% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.7% were from 25 to 44; 26.1% were from 45 to 64; and 11.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.

Hmong community

Per the 2022

five-year estimates, the Hmong population was 2,965 comprising over 70% of the city's Asian population.

Crime

FBI crime statistics for 2019 list the crime rate (per 100,000 population) for Appleton as follows

Economy

FoxRiverMallFoodCourt AppletonWisconsinUSA

Largest employers

As of 2020, the largest employers in the city were: Corporations headquartered in Appleton include: * ASP, Inc. * Fleet Farm * John Birch Society * Miller Electric

Healthcare

The city is served by two hospitals: * ThedaCare Regional Medical Center–Appleton * St. Elizabeth Hospital

Arts and culture

Appleton tourist attractions include the Hearthstone Historic House Museum, the four-story mansion that was the first house in US to be powered by

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

at its completion in 1881. The History Museum at the Castle contains exhibits on Fox River Valley history, including a gallery showcasing

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...

, a

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

exhibit, and other traveling exhibits. The J. B. Courtney Woolen Mills is a preserved site showcasing the area's historical manufacturing roots. The Fox Cities Exhibition Center is a prominent venue for conventions and events. The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center is a key location for performing arts, hosting a wide range of theater, musical, and dance performances. The Gardens of the Fox Cities, a public botanical garden, showcases the seasonal beauty of plants and gardens in Wisconsin. The Trout Museum of Art features a variety of visual art exhibits, contributing to the region's cultural landscape. The John Hart Whorton House is an example of local historic architecture. Houdini Plaza, on the corner of College Avenue and Appleton Street, has been referred to as the 'front yard' of downtown Appleton. It holds roughly 55 events each year, including summer concerts and part of the downtown

farmers market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...

. The Atlas Science Center, formerly Paper Discovery Center, was a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and workshop center focused on

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is Pulp and paper industry, made using industrial machinery, while handmade pape ...

and the history of the

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

industry in the area. It was first conceived in 1999 as part of the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame, Inc. The Kimberly-Clark Corporation donated its former Atlas Mill on the Fox River in Appleton to house the center, and after it was opened in February 2005, its programs included hands-on work experience, tours, and general information on

. The center closed in November 2024 and donated its remaining assets.

Parks and recreation

The city of Appleton has 24 neighborhood parks and four community parks in its park system. The neighborhood parks range in size from to , while the community parks range in size from to . Goodland Field is a historic site associated with local baseball, while the Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium serves as the home of the minor league Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Memorial Park is the largest of the community parks, covering . The park's facilities include: seven baseball/softball fields, playground equipment, an indoor ice skating rink, a sledding hill, a picnic pavilion, a catch-and-release fishing pond, grills, and a warming shelter. The park provides a firework display for the Appleton community during the 4th of July holiday. City Park, established in 1882, is the oldest park in the Appleton park system. The Trout Museum of Art uses the park for its ''Art in the Park'' showcase. The show features over 200 artists that attract over 25,000 art enthusiasts annually. Pierce Park is the site of weekly Appleton City Band concerts held during the summer, and of the annual Appleton Old Car Show and Swap Meet. Pierce Park and Telulah Park each feature a disc-golf course. Erb Park and Mead Park each feature a public aquatics facility. Jones Park is the site of the finish line for the Santa Scamper run held during the annual Appleton Christmas Parade, and features an outdoor hockey rink in the winter.

Government

Appleton is governed via the mayor-council system. The mayor appoints department heads, subject to council approval. The city attorney is elected every four years in a citywide vote. The council, known as the common council or city council, consists of 15 members, called alderpersons, all of whom are elected to two-year terms from individual districts. The current mayor of Appleton, Jake Woodford, was elected in 2020 to his first four-year term. The first mayor of Appleton was Amos Story, elected in April 1857. The longest-serving mayor was Timothy Hanna, who served from 1996 through 2020.

Mayors

Partial of list of Appleton's past mayors:

Congressional representation

Appleton is represented by

Ron Johnson Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American businessman and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Rep ...

(R) and

Tammy Baldwin Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin (born February 11, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party (United Stat ...

(D) in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

. It is represented in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

by Tony Wied, who has represented Wisconsin's 8th district since November 2024. In the Wisconsin state legislature, Appleton is divided among four State Assembly Districts (3rd, 55th, 56th, 57th) and two State Senate Districts (1st, 19th). As of the 2018–2019 legislative session, the following representatives serve these districts: * 3rd Assembly District: Ron Tusler (R–Harrison) * 55th Assembly District: Nate Gustafson (R–Neenah) * 56th Assembly District: David Murphy (R–Greenville) * 57th Assembly District: Lee Snodgrass (D–Appleton) * 1st Senate District: André Jacque (R–DePere) * 19th Senate District: Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R–Fox Crossing)

Education

Appleton is served by the Appleton Area School District, which has three high schools, four middle schools, seventeen elementary schools, and sixteen charter schools. The district's main public high schools are Appleton East, Appleton North, and Appleton West. Appleton has two parochial high schools:

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Xavier High School and Fox Valley Lutheran High School. Appleton also has charter high schools, including: Fox Cities Leadership Academy, Renaissance Academy, Appleton Technical Academy, and Tesla Engineering. Appleton is home to

, a private

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

college, and Fox Valley Technical College. Globe University, Concordia University Wisconsin, and Rasmussen College have branch campuses in the city. Located in nearby Menasha, is the University of Wisconsin–Fox Valley, which is set to close on June 30th 2025. University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley is a two-year campus of the University of Wisconsin System. Art is important and taught in local school districts. In recent years, Appleton has emerged as a center for innovation in technology education, particularly in the area of K–12 technology education: the student-driven Appleton Youth Education Initiative has partnered with Microsoft Philanthropies, Plexus Corp., Miron Construction, Schneider National, and Stellar Blue Technologies to organize the Appleton Tech Clinic and HackAppleton, a popular annual hackathon that draws students from all over Wisconsin. The city and surrounding area are served by the Appleton Public Library, which was chartered by the city in 1897 and as of 2010 has a collection of over 600,000 items. The library offers free wifi as well as printing and faxing for a small fee.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The city owns Valley Transit, a network of bus lines serving the Fox Valley.

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...

and Lamers Bus Lines offer intercity buses serving such locations as Green Bay, Madison, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In April 2021, Bird Rides launched a pilot program with 100 rentable electric scooters that users can operate throughout most of the city. In 2024, the city cut ties with Bird Rides, citing scooter parking concerns and concerns regarding Bird Rides' financial viability. The founder of the company Travis VanderZanden grew up in the Appleton area. Roads include: * Interstate 41 * US 10 *

US 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part i ...

* WIS 47 * WIS 96 * WIS 125 * WIS 441

Rail

Appleton is crisscrossed by the former main lines of the

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of t ...

(southwest-northeast) and the

Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway The Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway or ''Lake Shore Road'' (reporting mark MLS&W) is a former railroad company whose mainline connected Milwaukee, the Upper Peninsula and northwest Wisconsin with connection to Chicago by way of the Chica ...

(roughly southeast–northwest, and now largely abandoned except for local service to area paper mills and other industries). A north-south branch of the former Wisconsin Central Railroad passes on the west side of the city. All rail service is now operated by

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

. Appleton has no intercity

passenger rail A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

service, although studies are being undertaken on the feasibility of extending

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

rail service to the Fox Cities and Green Bay.

Airport

The Appleton International Airport is west of downtown Appleton. With four major airlines, the airport has an annual volume of over one million passengers.

Notable people

Sister cities

Appleton is twinned with: *

Chinandega Chinandega () is a city and the departmental seat of Chinandega department in Nicaragua. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding municipality of the same name. It is Nicaragua's 2nd most important city (economy) and 6th largest ...

Chinandega Department Chinandega () is a department in Nicaragua, located on the border with Honduras. It covers an area of and has a population of 441,897 (2021 estimate). The indigenous inhabitants of Chinandega are the Chorotegas and the Nahuas, and was the loc ...

, Nicaragua * Kan'onji, Kagawa, Japan

References

External links

City of Appleton
* {{Authority control Cities in Calumet County, Wisconsin Cities in Wisconsin Cities in Outagamie County, Wisconsin Cities in Winnebago County, Wisconsin County seats in Wisconsin Sundown towns in Wisconsin Appleton–Fox Cities metropolitan area