Waunakee

Waunakee (/ˌwɔːnəˈkiː/)[7] is a village in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States (est. 1871). The population was 12,097 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. Waunakee bills itself as “The Only Waunakee in the World.” The village was named as #78 in CNN Money’s “Top 100 Best Places to Live” for small towns in 2009.[8]

When the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad wanted to expand its line from Madison to Saint Paul, a door was opened for development of a town. The original location of the village was intended to be at Packham’s Mill, about where Mill Road crosses the railroad track today two miles southeast of today’s downtown Waunakee. However, two local settlers, Louis Baker and George Fish, platted a village on their land two miles further northwest along the railroad. Railroad officials agreed to moving a train depot to the new community in exchange for $1,500 and two miles of right of way.[9] The village was founded in 1871 and formally incorporated in 1893.[10] Baker and Fish did not want to take credit for naming the community, so they asked Simeon Mills and Mr. Hill of Madison to come up with a list. The name “Waunakee” has a Native American origin meaning “fair and pleasant valley.”