Carol Beach, Wisconsin

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Carol Beach is a residential community in southeastern Kenosha County, Wisconsin, generally bordered by Lake Michigan to the east, the Wisconsin-Illinois border to the south, Sheridan Road (Wisconsin State Highway 32) to the west, and 80th Street to the north. It is the location of the Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area preserve.

Carol Beach traces its roots to 1924, the year that Edith Rockefeller McCormick of Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of John D. Rockefeller and daughter-in-law of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick, purchased a 1,554-acre land parcel to found a new community which soon adopted the name Chiwaukee (the area is nearly equidistant between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin).

Chiwaukee was to have its own business district, golf course and playground, and its homes were to be constructed in the Tudor style. A promotional arch was constructed over Sheridan Road to inform passersby of the new, planned community. A street network was installed, with Lake Shore Drive as the main thoroughfare.

A national contest was announced to select a permanent name for the new community. Suggestions included such names as "Eden Pier" and "Ediths-dream", but Elmer Huge of La Porte, Indiana won a $1,500 prize for his submission: "Edithton Beach". Boxing aficionado Ham Fisher, the creator of the "Joe Palooka" strip, moved to a large home on South Lake Shore Drive in Edithton Beach where he drew the series and where famous pugilists (among them Joe Louis) would train.

When the Great Depression struck, McCormick's debts mounted and the project collapsed. The curbs and streets leading nowhere were the only visible reminders of the failed project until 1946, when local real-estate investor and developer Joseph Shaffron bought it, renamed it 'Carol Beach' for his young daughter, and promoted the community as a "second Evanston, Illinois". Some modest homes began to be built at that time.

By 1992, the then-town of Pleasant Prairie in which most of Carol Beach is situated became a village; however, the community continues to be known as Carol Beach. (The original name of "Edithton Beach" is nearly unknown today except to historians.)