Ulao, Wisconsin | |
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 Looking east at Ulao | |
  Ulao, Wisconsin  Ulao, Wisconsin | |
| Coordinates:43°19′14″N87°54′59″W / 43.32056°N 87.91639°W /43.32056; -87.91639 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Wisconsin |
| County | Ozaukee |
| Elevation | 689 ft (210 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| Area code | 262 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1577866[1] |
Ulao, Wisconsin (/juːˈleɪˌoʊ/yoo-LAY-oh)[2] is anunincorporated community in theTown of Grafton inOzaukee County,Wisconsin, United States.[1] It is located at the intersection of Ulao Road and the oldChicago and Northwestern railroad running fromMilwaukee toGreen Bay. Today,I-43 runs a few hundred feet to the west of the town. TheUlao Creek flows through the community.
There are several explanations of the community's name. Author Beatrice Krier claims that Ulao is a corruption of theSpanish wordUlloa, which was probably chosen because of a local veteran named Weber, who had participated in theSiege of Veracruz in March 1847 during theMexican–American War, when U.S. troops under the command ofWinfield Scott surrounded and overran the castle ofSan Juan de Ulúa, which itself was named for the Spanish explorerFrancisco de Ulloa, who had navigated the western coast ofMexico as part of the 1539 expedition of the conquistadorHernán Cortés.[3][4] Other explanations claim that it was named after a Native American leader, that it's a corruption of an American general's FrenchHuguenot name, or that the whistles of the engines of the Northwestern Railroad's pilot engines screamed something akin to "YOU LAY O" as they approached the community's depot.[5][6]
Ulao's founder was an investor named James T. Gifford, who also founded the city ofElgin, Illinois. In 1847, built Port Ulao on the edge of the clay bluffs on the shore ofLake Michigan, east of the present-day community. At the time,steamships were common on the Great Lakes and burned massive amounts of wood for fuel. A single steamship could consume wood equivalent to several acres worth of forest on single journey. Much of Grafton was primeval beech-maple forest, which settlers were clearing for agriculture, and Gifford saw an opportunity for Ulao to prosper as a refueling station for steamships. He built a sawmill, a warehouse, and a 1000-foot-long pier on the lake where ships docked to buy wood. The steep clay bluffs along the lake can be as high as 140 feet,[7] so Gifford used a chute to transport logs down to the pier.[8][3]
In 1847, theterritorial legislature granted Gifford a charter to build a plank road from Port Ulao west to theWisconsin River. Only three miles of it were actually built, but this turnpike, now known as Ulao Road, became the basis of today'sHighway 60.[8]
In 1856, eight members of theStrangite sect of the Latter Day Saint movement were forced to leave their home onBeaver Island on theMichigan side of the lake and moved to Ulao.[9][10]
The community prospered in the 1850s and 1860s and had a post office from 1850 until 1864,[11] but by the end of the American Civil War, steamships relied less on wood as a fuel source[5] and Ozaukee County's forests had been largely depleted, forcing Ulao into decline with most of the land being converted to agriculture.[12]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Municipalities and communities ofOzaukee County, Wisconsin,United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |