The Village of Fontana-on-Geneva Lake (Fontana) is located on the western edge of Lake Geneva, Walworth County. With a year-round population of about 1,700 residents, Fontana offers the peace and serenity of small town life, but with easy accessibility from the Milwaukee, Chicago, and Rockford areas, it is week-end destination from another 3,500 to 5,000 property owners and guests at any given time. The proximity to Geneva Lake and the surrounding areas offers a wide variety of services and recreational opportunities.
The Village is governed by a Board consisting of the Village President and six Trustees, who are elected on an at-large basis for two year terms, with the Trustee terms staggered. In addition, the Village is served by an Administrator, appointed by the Board, who manages the day-to-day activities and administers the policies set forth by the Board and a Village Hall staff that is known for their friendly and helpful service. The Village Hall posts a calendar of monthly meetings and events.
Numerous boards and commissions, composed of civic-minded residents and business leaders who volunteer their time and expertise, study issues of interest to the Village and make recommendations to the Village Board. Fontana's biggest asset is the people who live here -- intelligent, friendly, neighborly people. Fontana is a good place to live, an ideal place to raise a family and a great place to call home.
Potawatomi Indians inhabited the area around the lake Kishwauketoe (clear water), now know as Geneva Lake, prior to the arrival by white settlers in 1836. At that time, Chief Big Foot ruled the three bands, which lived near the present day towns of Fontana, Lake Geneva and Williams Bay.
Mrs. John Kinzie, the wife of a U.S. Army officer, "discovered" Geneva Lake in 1836 while traveling of an Indian trail from Chicago to Fort Winnebago and recorded the event in her diary:
"Soon after mid-day, we descended a long, sloping knoll and by a sudden turn came in full view of the beautiful sheet of water (on the south shore of the lake, in the present Glenwood subdivision). . . . Bold, swelling hills jutted forward into the clear expanse, or retreated slightly to afford a green level nook, as a resting place for the foot of a man. On the nearer shore stretched a bright gravely beach through which coursed here and there a pure sparkling rivulet to join the larger sheet of water. On the rising ground, at the foot of one of the bluffs in the middle distance a collection of neat wigwams formed, with their surrounding gardens, no unpleasant features in the picture. A shout of delight burst involuntarily from the whole party, as this charming landscape met our view. What could be more enchanting."
- Fontana Sesquicentennial Historical Handbook, 1986
Although the Kishwauketoe Potawatomis did not join other tribes in several frontier wars in the 1820s and 30s, the US federal government forcibly resettled the tribe in Kansas in 1836.
Settlers followed the Kinzie party and begin to build homes and farms. They organized a township government in 1839 that included present-day Fontana, Sharon, Walworth and part of Williams Bay. Matthias Mohr is credited with choosing the name Fontana either after a town in Switzerland or from the Italian word "fontana" meaning fountain. The village at that time consisted mainly of buildings in the area now bound by Mill Street, Main Street, West Main Street and Dewey Avenue.
Fontana's next growth spurt occurred in the 1890s, as a result of the increasing popularity of Geneva Lake as a resort area. The Chicago Fire of 1871 forced many leading Chicago families out of the city while rebuilding took place. A train line had just been extended to Lake Geneva, and many Chicago residents took the train north to the end of the line and stayed with family or friends who had already turned to Geneva Lake as a vacation destination.
