WASHBURN  , a

city and the county-seat of Bayfield county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., about 52 M . E. of Superior, Wis., and about 6 m . N. of Ashland, on Chequamegon Bay, an arm of Lake Superior . Pop . (1910) 3830 . Washburn is served by the Northern Pacific and the Chicago & North-Western railways, and by several lines of lake steamships . The city is finely situated on high land above the bay, and is a popular summer resort, being especially well known for its boating and fishing . It has a Carnegie library . Among its manufactures are staves, shingles, lumber, wooden ware and bricks . There is a powder and dynamite plant in the vicinity . In the city there are also grain elevators and large coal docks, and in the neighbourhood are valuable stone quarries . In 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers touched here on their trip along the south shore of Lake Superior .

In 1665

Father Claude Allouez, the Jesuit, established on the shore of the bay, a short distance south of the present city, the first French mission in Wisconsin, which he named " La Pointe du Saint Esprit," and which in 1669 was placed in charge of Father Jacques Marquette . The place was visited by Du Luth in 1681–1682, and here in 1693 Le Sueur, a fur trader, built a stockaded post . In 1718 a fort was erected and a French garrison placed in it . About 182o–1821a trading post of the American Fur Company was established in the neighbourhood . The present city, named in honour of Governor C . C . Washburn, dates from about 1879, but its growth was slow until after 1888 . It was chartered as a city in 1904 .