Ulao, Wisconsin

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Ulao, Wisconsin is an unincorporated community in the Town of Grafton in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. It is located at the intersection of Ulao Road and the old Chicago and Northwestern railroad running from Milwaukee to Green Bay. Today, I-43 runs a few hundred feet to the west of the town.

[edit] History

Just to the east of Ulao, on the shore of Lake Michigan, is the ghost town of Port Ulao. Port Ulao was founded in 1847 by James T. Gifford, an investor from Elgin, Illinois. In this area Gifford began a business of selling cords of wood to steamships heading down the lake. He built a 1000 foot wooden pier into the lake for ships to dock. He then constructed a chute down the side of a steep bluff to transport logs which farmers in the area produced while cutting down the local forests in order to create farmland.[1]

The same year, Gifford was granted a charter by the territorial legislature to build a plank road from Port Ulao west to the Wisconsin River. Only three miles were actually built, but this turnpike, now known as Ulao Road, became the basis of today's Highway 60.[2]

Ulao Creek runs through the community.