Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and 22nd-largest in the United States. The city is the county seat of Milwaukee County, located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, about 90 miles north of Chicago. Milwaukee (properly pronounced, Mill - WAU - kee) lies along the shores and bluffs of Lake Michigan at the confluence of three rivers: the Menomonee, the Kinnickinnic and the Milwaukee. Smaller rivers, such as the Root River and Lincoln Creek also run throughout the city.

The Milwaukee area was originally inhabited by the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago Indian tribes. French missionaries and traders first passed through the area in the late 1600s and 1700s. The first Europeans to pass through the area were French missionaries and traders. In 1818, Frenchman Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846 Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee, with Juneau as its first mayor. Large numbers of German and other immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades.

There are several theories regarding the city's name, but the commonly accepted explanation is that "Milwaukee" is derived from an Indian word meaning "gathering place by the water." Early explorers called the Milwaukee River and surrounding lands various names: Melleorki, Milwacky, Mahn-a-waukie, Milwarck, and Milwaucki. For many years, printed records gave the name as "Milwaukie." A Short History of Milwaukee by William George Bruce gives the story of Milwaukee's final name: "[O]ne day during the thirties of the last century a newspaper calmly changed the name to Milwaukee, and Milwaukee it has remained until this day."

Milwaukee residents enjoy four seasons with brisk, white winters giving way to green, warm springs. Hot and humid summers, both stirred and eased by its eastern border on Lake Michigan, eventually yields to colorful, pleasant autumns. Lake Michigan causes a convection current to form in mid-afternoonw, resulting in the so-called "lake effect," which causes warmer temperatures in winter and cooler evenings in the summer. Environmental organization SustainLane ranked Milwaukee along with Mesa, Arizona the least likely to suffer natural disasters, in a study of fifty US cities measuring the risk of a natural disaster striking the city.

Although many people associate Milwaukee with beer, today companies like Miller Brewing employ less than one percent of the city's workers. The Milwaukee area ranks number five in the nation when measuring the number of Fortune 500 companies as a share of the population. Milwaukee is headquarters to six Fortune 1000 manufacturers and six Fortune 1000 service companies. Among these are Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Manpower Inc., Marshall & Ilsley, Northwestern Mutual Insurance, Rockwell Automation, Roundy's Supermarkets, Metavante, Kohl's, and Wisconsin Energy. Milwaukee also has a large number of financial service firms, particularly those specializing in mutual funds and transaction processing systems, and a disproportionate number of publishing and printing companies, including Quad/Graphics. Milwaukee is also the headquarters of the Koss Corporation and Master Lock Corporation.

Performing Arts abound in Milwaukee, home to the Florentine Opera, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Skylight Opera Theatre, First Stage Children's Theater and a number of other arts organizations. Additionally, Milwaukee is home to artistic performance venues such as the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Pabst Theater, The Rave/Eagles Ballroom, Riverside Theatre, and Milwaukee Theatre. The Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, a first-of-its-kind Arts-in-education facility, is a national model.

Rightly promoted as "A Great Place on a Great Lake" and "Genuine American," Milwaukee also advertises itself as the "City of Festivals," emphasizing an annual lakefront fair called Summerfest. Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest music festival in the world, Summerfest attracts around 900,000 visitors a year to its twelve stages.Wrapped around Summerfest, Milwaukee's lakefront also celebrates a variety of ethnic festivals throughout the summer. Virtually every week, residents and guests enjoy the unique meals, music and mirth of their Polish, Greek, French, Italian, German, African-American, Arab, Irish, Native American and Mexican ancestry..

Milwaukee has a vibrant history of show, stage, rock, blues, punk, ska, industrial music, goth and pop music bands. A range of musicians have called Milwaukee home, including Hildegarde, Woody Herman, Liberace, electric guitar inventor Les Paul, rock 'n roll piano legend Jerry Lee Lewis, saxophonist Warren Wiegratz, blues giant Hubert Sumlin, the BoDeans, Violent Femmes and Al Jarreau among others.

Milwaukee has a long and storied sports history, as well. Led by future Hall of Famers Henry Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn, the Milwaukee Braves set National League attendance records and rivaled the Dodgers and Yankees in the late 1950s, winning the World Series in 1957 and losing to the Yanks in 7 games in 1958. Today, the Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette University lead the headlines, along with traditional part-time home team Green Bay Packers who, until recently, played a portion of their home schedule in Milwaukee each season:

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