Zilwaukee, MI…What’s It All About?

Recently, msn.com did a feature on towns names with unusual backstories.  Ya know, like Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Chicken, Alaska, Slaughter Beach, Delaware and Tightwad, Missouri.  Of course, I had to look and see if there were any Michigan cities on the list.  I was expecting Hell, MI or maybe Climax, MI.  Nope.  The only Michigan city on the list was Zilwaukee, MI which, until I read this article, I had never heard of.

I did notice that it looked a lot like Milwaukee in Wisconsin and, sure enough, that had something to do with the backstory.  Was it a tribute to Milwaukee?  Nope again.  It was actually renamed to trick settlers interested in moving to Milwaukee in the mid 1800s.  I guess it was easy to trick people in those days.  People eventually moved there but not because of the scheme to trick them.  Check out the rest of the Zilwaukee backstory and the other cities on the list by clicking HERE.