1892 Map of Waukesha

Settlement patterns reveal the importance of water and steam power to the local economy, with towns like Menomonee Falls and Sussex established near river bends or along the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Smaller, now-integrated locales such as Fussville, Marcy, and Duplainville provide specific points of interest for genealogists tracing ancestral homesteads. The topography is dotted with glacial features, from the marshy edges of Bark Lake to the meandering course of Underwood Creek near Wauwatosa.