Whitewater, Wisconsin
Whitewater is a small city in southern Wisconsin, in Walworth and Jefferson counties. About 14,900 people lived there in 2020. It sits near the Kettle Moraine State Forest and is home to the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. The town began where Whitewater Creek and Spring Brook meet and was named for the white sand in the streams. A gristmill created Cravath Lake, and the community grew after Wisconsin’s first railroad passed through in 1853. It later faced challenges when its biggest employers left.
Over the years, Whitewater has welcomed many groups. Early settlers were New England “Yankees” who valued education and abolition. Immigrant families from Belgium, Canada, Russia, Serbia, France and England also came, and in recent years many people from Nicaragua moved to the city. Whitewater uses a council-manager form of government, with City Manager John Weidl, and is served by the Whitewater Unified School District and Kettle Moraine Baptist Academy.
The city offers parks and attractions such as Cravath Lakefront Park, Moraine View Park, Starin Park, Trippe Lake Park and Whitewater Creek Nature Area. The nearby Effigy Mounds Preserve and the Minneiska Water Ski Shows on Whitewater Lake are popular in the summer, and group bike tours run from the Ice Age Trail crossing near town. The University hosts events at Young Auditorium, and Whitewater holds annual events like Freeze Fest, Maxwell Street Day, and a Fourth of July celebration.
A notable part of Whitewater’s lore is the Morris Pratt Institute, a spiritualist school once housed in the city. The building was torn down in 1961, but stories of hauntings and legends—such as those at the Starin Park Water Tower and the Beast of Bray Road—live on. The town even offers Spirit Tours in October and has embraced the nickname “Second Salem” for fun.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:58 (CET).