Manitowoc County ( ) is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 81,359. Its

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 ...

is Manitowoc. The county was created in 1836 prior to Wisconsin's statehood and organized in 1848. Manitowoc County comprises the Manitowoc, WI Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (61%) is water.

Major highways

Railroads

* Canadian National

Buses

* Maritime Metro Transit

Airport

Manitowoc County Airport (KMTW) serves the county and surrounding communities.

Adjacent counties

* Brown County – northwest * Kewaunee County – northeast * Sheboygan County – south * Calumet County – west * Mason County, Michigan – east and southeast * Manistee County, Michigan – northeast

National marine sanctuary

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary was established in 2021 in the waters of

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 ...

, with most of its northern half lying off Manitowoc County's coast. The national marine sanctuary is the site of a large number of historically significant

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

Climate

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, the population was 81,359. 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 37,818 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 88.5%

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 ...

, 2.8% Asian, 1.3%

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 ...

, 0.6% Native American, 1.8% from other races, and 4.9% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 5.0%

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. The 2000

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 ...

shows Manitowoc County as having 82,887 people, 32,721 households and 22,348 families. The

was . There were 34,651 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 95.90%

, 0.30%

, 0.43% Native American, 1.98% Asian, 0.04%

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 ...

, 0.60% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. 1.62% of the population were

or Latino of any race. 53.7% were of German, 7.3% Polish, 5.3% Czech and 5.0%

American ancestry In the demography of the United States, some people self-identify their ancestral origin or descent as "American", rather than the more common officially recognized racial and ethnic groups that make up the bulk of the American people. The ...

. 95.2% spoke English, 1.8% Spanish, 1.3% Hmong and 1.1% German as their first language. There were 32,721 households, out of which 31.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.10% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 7.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.70% were non-families. 26.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.04. In the county, the age distribution is 25.5% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 28.20% from 25 to 44, 23% from 45 to 64, and 15.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.10 males. In 2017, there were 780 births, giving a general fertility rate of 60.2 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the 27th lowest rate out of all 72 Wisconsin counties.

Government

The county executive is Bob Ziegelbauer. He is serving his fourth term in that position after being elected in April 2006 and reelected in April 2010, April 2014, and April 2018. The county is served by a 25-member county board.

Politics

Manitowoc County is fairly competitive in presidential elections; in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

became the first candidate since

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

from his 1964 landslide to win more than 55% of the vote. He expanded his share to over 60% during the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

election, the first time since

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

in his

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

landslide that a Republican has hit 60% of the vote in the county. Trump continued this upward trend in 2024, albeit slightly. Statewide, Manitowoc County has voted Republican since the 2002 gubernatorial election.

Communities

Cities

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

(partly in Calumet County) * Manitowoc (county seat) * Two Rivers

Villages

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

* Francis Creek * Kellnersville * Maribel * Mishicot * Reedsville * St. Nazianz * Valders * Whitelaw

Towns

* Cato * Centerville * Cooperstown * Eaton * Franklin * Gibson * Kossuth *

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

* Manitowoc * Manitowoc Rapids * Maple Grove * Meeme * Mishicot * Newton * Rockland * Schleswig * Two Creeks * Two Rivers

Census-designated places

* Collins

Unincorporated communities

* Alverno *

Branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...

* Cato * Cato Falls * Clarks Mills *

Clover Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...

* Cooperstown * Duveneck * Fisherville * Grimms * Hickory Grove * Kellners Corners * Kingsbridge * Larrabee * Louis Corners * Madsen * Maple Grove * Meeme * Meggers (partial) * Melnik * Menchalville * Millhome * Newton * Newtonburg * North Grimms * Northeim * Osman * Reifs Mills * Rockville * Rockwood * Rosecrans * Rube * School Hill * Shoto * Spring Valley * Steinthal * Taus * Tisch Mills (partial) * Two Creeks * Wells (partial) *

Zander The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also includes perch, Gymnocephalus, ruffe and Darter (fish), darter. It is found in freshwater and brackis ...

At night

In the media

The Netflix documentary series '' Making a Murderer'' (2015) explores the arrests and trials in 2007 of Manitowoc County residents Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach, who disappeared in October 2005. The series describes an earlier wrongful conviction of Avery, for which he served 18 years, and his subsequent lawsuit against Manitowoc County. It then focuses on the procedures of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office and the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department, which investigated the later Halbach case. The Sheriffs officers have come under intense scrutiny for their involvement in the Halbach case due to Steven Avery's $36 million lawsuit and their questionable police and investigative techniques.MONICA DAVEY, "Questioning the Evidence in the ‘Making a Murderer’ Case"
''New York Times,'' January 29, 2016; accessed January 14, 2016 In 2017, Charlie Berens created a comedic short-form video series called '' Manitowoc Minute'', which features a fictitious

news presenter A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

character who exaggerates the culture and

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of Wisconsin.

Gallery

File:Manitowoc County Fairgrounds July 27 2012.jpg, Manitowoc County Expo Grounds Image:ManitowocCountySignWIS57WIS32.jpg, Sign marking entrance to Manitowoc County in

File:ManitowocCountyJail.jpg, Manitowoc County Jail

References

External links

Official website

Manitowoc County map
from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation {{authority control Wisconsin counties 1836 establishments in Wisconsin Territory Populated places established in 1836