Milwaukee

Just ninety miles north of Chicago, bustling MILWAUKEE is the largest city in Wisconsin and is a combination of the rural Midwest and its stylish urban counterparts. Visually it’s a mix of elegant architecture, rambling Victorian warehouses and revamped waterfront developments. Its prime position on the shores of Lake Michigan, at the confluence of three rivers, made it a meeting place for Native American groups long before white settlers moved in, while the opulent mansions lining the lake commemorate the industrialists who helped make this Wisconsin’s economic and manufacturing capital. By 1850, less than two decades old and with a population of twenty thousand, Milwaukee already had a dozen breweries and 225 saloons.