De Pere

Wisconsin Historical Society Marker 189: Marquette-Joliet. Located on Front St in east De Pere.De Pere (/diˈpɪər/ dee-PEER) is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, located on the ancestral homeland of the Menominee people. When French explorer Jean Nicolet visited in 1634–35, the site was home to a multi-tribal settlement of several thousand people, drawn by the abundant fishing at the first rapids of the Fox River. The Menominee, who call themselves Mamaceqtaw ("the people"), have inhabited the Fox River valley for over 10,000 years and are the only Wisconsin tribe with no migration story—their origin is in this land.

In 1671, French Jesuit missionary Claude-Jean Allouez founded the St. Francis Xavier Mission at the rapids, establishing a base for proselytizing Indigenous peoples of the western Great Lakes. The site became known as Rapides des Pères ("rapids of the fathers"), later shortened to De Pere.