City of Waukegan

Waukegan, is the most populous city in and the county seat of Lake County, Illinois, United States. An industrial suburb of Chicago, Waukegan is situated about 26 miles (42 km) north of Chicago’s city limits. As of the 2020 census, its population was 89321, ranking it the seventh-most populous city within the Chicago metropolitan area, and the 10th-most populous city in Illinois. Waukegan has a significant working-class population, some poor areas and a small middle-class community.

he site of present-day Waukegan was recorded as Rivière du Vieux Fort (“Old Fort River”) and Wakaygagh on a 1778 map by Thomas Hutchins. By the 1820s, the French name had become “Small Fort River” in English, and the settlement was known as “Little Fort”. The name “Waukegance” and then “Waukegan” (meaning “little fort”; cf. Potawatomi wakaigin “fort” or “fortress”) was created by John H. Kinzie and Solomon Juneau, and the new name was adopted on March 31, 1849.