Portage (Wisconsin)
Columbia County
55-64100
Portage is a city ( with a status of "City" ) and the administrative seat of Columbia County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In 2010, Portage had 10,324 inhabitants. Portage is part of the metropolitan area of Madison.
Geography
Portage is located at 43 ° 33 'north latitude and 89 ° 28 ' west longitude, extends over 23.4 km ² at an altitude of 249 meters above sea level. The town lies in the valley of the Wisconsin River.
At the edge of the city, cross the interstate highways I-39, I- 90 and I -94. Through the city cause Interstate 39, U.S. Highway 51 and Wisconsin Highway 16, 33 and 127
The city is connected to the network of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Empire Builder, an Amtrak passenger train of the Chicago to Seattle, stops two times daily in Portage.
The Dane County Regional Airport is located 50 kilometers south of the city.
The nearest large towns are Madison, the capital of the state ( about 60 km south ), Wausau ( 150 km north ), La Crosse (about 160 miles west) and Milwaukee (about 160 km east). The closest big city is Chicago (about 260 km south-east ).
History
Already the regional Native American tribes and later the European traders took advantage of the lowlands between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River as a natural Portage. 1673 came Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet using canoes in the area of present-day Portage. The French fur traders described the place as " le portage". The city owes its name to this word ( " carry water transportation, in order to avoid obstacles in the water section can " description for ). As a " portage " developed the community to a lively trading center. To support this development, a channel to the Fox River was built. This is to establish an important waterway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River succeeded. The waterway was known as the Fox - Wisconsin Waterway and was an important and frequently used route for fur traders during the French colonization of the Americas. Later Portage was also connected to the railway network. Portage has city status since 1854.
Population
According to the census in 2010 lived in Portage 10,324 people in 4060 households. The population density was 480.2 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the 4060 households lived statistically 2.27 per person.
The racial the population was composed of 90.9 percent white, 5.0 percent African American, 0.9 percent Native American, 0.8 percent Asian and 0.7 percent from other ethnic groups; 1.6 percent were descended from two or more races. Regardless of ethnicity were 4.0 percent of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
22.1 percent of the population were under 18 years old, 64.0 percent were between 18 and 64 and 13.9 percent were 65 years or older. 46.3 percent of the population was female.
The median annual income for a household was $ 43,428. The per capita income was $ 21,169. 16.3 percent of the population lived below the poverty line.
Persons that are associated with the city
- Jeffrey Dahmer (1960-1994), serial killers, from 1992, held in Portage and murdered by a fellow inmate,
- Zona Gale (1874-1938), writer and playwright, in 1921 the first female winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama,
- Charles W. Henney (1884-1969), politician, MP for Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives,
- John Edward Kelley (1853-1941), politician, Member of Parliament for South Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives,
- Russell W. Peterson (1916-2011), politician, Governor of the State of Delaware,
- Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932), American historian.