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Milwaukee was originally a nice, regular shape, save the gentle curve of Lake Michigan and a little rectangular bite from its northwest corner.
But to the chagrin of cartographers, the city limits expanded aggressively outward for more than a century, swallowing dozens of tracts large and small before the “Iron Ring” of suburbs around Milwaukee incorporated, reining in most of the city’s large-scale expansion.
The city also grew to the east, filling in acres of Lake Michigan to create the lakefront parks and dense industrial plots around the harbor.
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Milwaukee County’s Original Townships
Granville
Milwaukee
Wauwatosa
Greenfield
Lake
Franklin
Oak Creek
