De Pere, Wisconsin
De Pere, Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
De Pere Dam on the Fox River at De Pere | |
| Motto: "Runs Deeper" | |
Location of De Pere in Brown County, Wisconsin | |
De Pere De Pere | |
| Coordinates: 44°26′46″N 88°4′27″W / 44.44611°N 88.07417°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wisconsin |
| County | Brown |
| Incorporated (village) | March 6, 1857 |
| Incorporated (city) | March 31, 1883 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | James Boyd |
| Area | |
• Total | 12.78 sq mi (33.09 km2) |
| • Land | 11.96 sq mi (30.97 km2) |
| • Water | 0.82 sq mi (2.12 km2) |
| Elevation | 600 ft (183 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 25,410 |
| • Density | 2,088.4/sq mi (806.35/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code | 54115 |
| Area code | 920 |
| FIPS code | 55-19775 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1563754 |
| Website | https://www.deperewi.gov/ |
De Pere (/diˈpɪər/ dee-PEER) is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, located on the ancestral homeland of the Menominee people. When French explorer Jean Nicolet visited in 1634–35, the site was home to a multi-tribal settlement of several thousand people, drawn by the abundant fishing at the first rapids of the Fox River. The Menominee, who call themselves Mamaceqtaw ("the people"), have inhabited the Fox River valley for over 10,000 years and are the only Wisconsin tribe with no migration story—their origin is in this land.
In 1671, French Jesuit missionary Claude-Jean Allouez founded the St. Francis Xavier Mission at the rapids, establishing a base for proselytizing Indigenous peoples of the western Great Lakes. The site became known as Rapides des Pères ("rapids of the fathers"), later shortened to De Pere.
De Pere is part of the Green Bay metropolitan area. The population was 25,410 at the 2020 census. The De Pere Dam marks a significant point on the Lower Fox River; during the 20th century, the area just downstream of the dam contained the highest PCB concentrations in the river—up to 3,000 parts per million—from paper mill discharges between the 1950s and 1970s. A billion-dollar cleanup completed in 2020 dredged or capped over 6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment.