Government surveyor John Brink named this lake in 1835, after deciding it reminded him of Geneva, New York, his hometown. Long before that, the Potawatomi knew these waters as Kishwauketoe — “clear water.” The first permanent settler, Christopher Payne, built a log cabin here in 1836; the town was platted in 1837, incorporated as a village in 1844, and chartered as a city in 1883.

Everything changed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when wealthy Chicago industrialists began building palatial summer estates along the shoreline, earning the town its nickname: the “Newport of the Midwest.” One of the best-preserved survivors is Black Point, a Queen Anne mansion built in 1888 by Chicago brewer Conrad Seipp, topped with a distinctive four-story “crow’s nest” tower. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now run by the Wisconsin Historical Society, open for public tours by boat.

What makes Lake Geneva unusual is that almost the entire 21-mile shoreline is lined with private estates like Black Point — and yet a public footpath has circled the lake for generations anyway. The Geneva Lake Shore Path follows a route once used by Native American travelers moving between villages around the lake, and by long-standing local custom the first stretch of land above the waterline has stayed open to walkers. The path still crosses dozens of private properties today, with each landowner maintaining their own section.