Audiotur Milwaukee: A Tale of Two Towns

Welcome to Milwaukee. And more specifically, welcome to Kilbourntown, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, founded in the early 19th Century by surveyor and politician Byron Kilbourn. You’ll start the tour here, at the western border of Kilbourntown, and journey eastward. You’ll eventually cross over the Milwaukee River. Then you’ll explore the oldest part of Milwaukee, a neighborhood called Juneautown, which was founded by Solomon Juneau, a French-Canadian fur trader and land speculator. These two settlements – and a third, lesser-development settlement to the south of here called Walker’s Point – formed a shaky alliance, and made up the entirety of what is now modern Milwaukee. Kilbourntown and Juneautown were especially at odds in the early days. Their rivalry turned violent during a dispute now known as the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845, which we’ll get to later on.

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Photo “Milwaukee from the harbor” by designatednaphour is licensed under CC BY 2.0