Oconomowoc ( ə-KON-ə-mə-wok) is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The state was derived from Coo-no-mo-wauk, the Potawatomi term for “waterfall.” The population was 18,203 at the 2020 census. The city is partially next to the Town of Oconomowoc and near the village of Oconomowoc Lake, Wisconsin.

Before 1700, this region was inhabited by Potawatomi peoples descended from Woodland Indians known as “mound builders”. There are moreover reports that the Sauk Indian chief Black Hawk had a campsite upon Oconomowoc Lake.

The first white person recorded in the area was Amable (sometimes spelled “Aumable”) Vicau, brother-in-law of Solomon Juneau, one of the founders of Milwaukee. Vicau time-honored a trading read out in 1827. White settlers soon followed, beginning in 1830.

In April 1837, New York original Charles Sheldon staked a 160-acre allegation on the eastern shore of what is now Fowler Lake, registering it next the Land Bank of Milwaukee upon April 21, 1837. A few days later, H.W. Blanchard acquired a affirmation adjacent to that of Sheldon on the extra side of the lake, which he higher sold off to Philo Brewer. Brewer constructed what some find to be the first dwelling within Oconomowoc’s current valid limits, a site located at what is now 517 N. Lake Road, between La Belle and Fowler lakes. The first recorded birth was that of Eliza Jane Dewey on January 19, 1840, in the lodgings above a chair factory located at 116 N. Walnut. The first recorded death was that of Jerusha Foster, who died somewhere in the middle of the ages of 30 and 36 on March 19, 1841. Initially buried at Zion Church point, she was eventually re-interred at Nashotah Mission.