Kaukauna

Kaukauna is a city in Outagamie County on the Fox River, roughly ten miles east of Appleton in the heart of the Fox Cities region. The name derives from an Ojibwe term referencing the pike fishing at the river falls, and those falls shaped the city's development from its earliest days. The Fox River drops significantly through Kaukauna, a geographic feature that powered the paper mills and manufacturing operations that built the city's economy and still define its character today.

The Five Locks area along the Fox River is one of Kaukauna's more distinctive assets, a stretch of historic canal locks that connected the Great Lakes waterway system and allowed commercial navigation through the Fox Cities. The riverfront park system gives residents access to that history along with trails, fishing access, and seasonal recreation. Kaukauna also operates its own municipal electric and water utility, Kaukauna Utilities, an uncommon arrangement that gives the city more direct control over infrastructure costs than most comparably sized communities.