Ripon (/ˈrɪpən/) is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States.

Ripon is home to the Little White Schoolhouse, the commonly recognized birthplace of the Republican Party.

[4] Ripon was founded in 1849 by David P. Mapes, a former New York steamboat captain.

Within two years the city had absorbed the nearby commune of Ceresco, established in 1844 by the Wisconsin Phalanx, a group of settlers inspired by the communitarian socialist philosophy of Charles Fourier.

Meeting at a school house in Ripon on March 20, 1854,[7] some 30 opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act called for the organization of a new political party (to link their cause with the Declaration of Independence).

The group also took a leading role in the creation of the Republican Party in many northern states during the summer of 1854.

Ripon is located in the northwest corner of Fond du Lac County.

[8] Ripon lies in the Sinnipee Group, a geologic formation composed primarily of dolomite, with limestone as a secondary rock type.

The area has relatively gentle relief and is part of the Fox River (Wisconsin) watershed.

Wis 23 heads east to Rosendale and Fond du Lac.

Fond du Lac County Hwy E also serves town.

Ripon is the starting point for the Fisk VFR arrival into EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.