Green Bay WI (Wisconsin)

Green Bay is a Lake Michigan cruise port and city in Wisconsin USA (Brown County) with population around 110,000. The Port is at Fox River's mouth. Green Bay is approx 114 mi (184 km) north of Milwaukee (via highway I-43N). By population, Green Bay is Lake Michigan's third-largest Wisconsin city - following Milwaukee (state's largest) and Madison (state's capital), and also the third-largest on Lake Michigan - following Chicago Illinois and Milwaukee Wisconsin. Green Bay Metro (combined population around 310,000) groups three counties (Brown, Kewaunee, Oconto).

Being one of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan has surface area (22300 mi2/58000 km2), water volume (1180 mi3/4900 km3) max depth (925 ft/282 m), cities in Illinois (Chicago), Indiana (Gary), Wisconsin (Green Bay, Sheboygan, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine) and Michigan (Muskegon, Traverse City).

Currently, the largest by capacity Great Lakes cruise companies are Viking Cruises USA (Viking Octantis), AQV-American Queen Voyages (ships Ocean Navigator, Ocean Voyager), Pearl Seas Cruises (Pearl Mist), and the Canadian company St Lawrence Cruise Lines (Canadian Empress). Other travel brands that offer Great Lakes voyages are PONANT and Tauck (fleet).

Green Bay Port (locode USGRB) is Michigan Lake's westernmost port featuring modern facilities with capacity to handle passenger and cargo ships. The Port has direct road and cargo rail connections via major railroads and highways. There are plans Amtrak trains to reach Green Bay by extending the Hiawatha route (Chicago-Milwaukee). Via the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence Seaway, the Port receives large-capacity ocean ships also from Canada (Montreal and Halifax).

Green Bay's Shipyard District (a downtown neighborhood) consists of industrial, rail and shipping sites most of which are currently not used. In 2021 was founded the company Shipyard District Inc currently grouping 50+ business and property owners within the area bounded by Mason Street (north), Lombardi Avenue (south), Ashland Avenue (west) and Fox River (east). The Port currently houses a total of 14 businesses and annually serves 200+ ships and handles ~2 million cargo tons of goods - coal, limestone, salt, petroleum products, liquid asphalt, wood pulp, forest products, food, various machinery.

The Green Bay area was first settled by Europeans (French fur traders) in the mid-17th-century. The settlement (La Baie des Puants/Bay of Stinking Waters) was established as a trading post in 1634, renamed La Baie Verte (Green Bay) in 1671, officially founded as a town in 1754 and incorporated as a city in 1854.

The town's growth started with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 (351-mi / 565-km-long navigable by large ships waterway between Hudson River and Lake Erie) linking the Great Lakes with New England/Atlantic Ocean (New York) from where most of its settlers (mainly farmers) arrived in Wisconsin.

In the mid-19th-century the town's economy started to benefit from the three new railroad connections (C&NW-Chicago & North Western, SOO Line, MILW-Milwaukee Road). The railways allowed major shipping traffic (passengers and cargo) all over Wisconsin, including timber, which made the paper industry Green Bay's largest employer.

~14% of the city is part of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin (1838-established reservation of the Oneida Indians, federally recognized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934). The city's current-day economy is largely based on the paper industry and major companies like Georgia-Pacific LLC, Procter & Gamble, Charmin, Steen-Macek Paper Co Inc, Green Bay Packaging. The city is famous for its huge toilet paper production since the early-20th-century. Other major industries include healthcare (UnitedHealth Group, Advocate Aurora Health, Bellin Health, St Vincent Hospital), insurance (Humana Inc), banking (Associated Banc-Corp, Nicolet Bankshares), transportation and logistics (Schneider National Inc), food processing and packing (American Foods Group, Schreiber Foods Inc, JBS USA Holdings Inc), shopping (East Town Mall, Bay Park Square Mall, Shopko, Walmart, HJ Martin & Son), TV mirror manufacturing (Seura), tourism.

Green Bay's tourism industry is based on Bay Beach Amusement Park (rides, concessions, roller coaster), Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary (600 sacred wildlife refuge), Fox River State Recreational Trail (aka Fox River Trail/Green Bay-De Pere-Rockland-Wrightstown-Greenleaf-Holland-Hilbert), Green Bay Botanical Garden (1996-opened), Meyer Theatre (1930-opened), Neville Public Museum of Brown County (1927-opened), Packers Heritage Trail (self-guided sports-themed walking tour visiting locations relating to the football club Green Bay Packers), WCPA (Weidner Center for the Performing Arts/1993-opened).