The city is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Sheboygan River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Milwaukee and 64 mi (103 km) south of Green Bay.

[8][self-published source] In the Menominee language, the place is known as Sāpīwǣhekaneh, "at a hearing distance in the woods".

Migrants from New York, Michigan, and New England were among the first new Americans to settle this area in the 1830s, though the French had been present in the region since the 17th century and had intermarried with local people.

"[11] Lumbering was the first major industry, as trees were harvested and shipped to eastern markets through the Great Lakes.

Although Sheboygan was officially incorporated in 1846,[12] much of the town had been platted in 1836, when property investors laid out more than one thousand lots.

[13] By 1849, a wave of liberal, middle-class immigration triggered by the revolutions of 1848 had made the community known for its German population.

"[14] Between 1840 and 1890, Protestant Dutch immigrants also settled in the area,[15] as did Irish refugees fleeing the Great Famine.

[citation needed] A neighborhood in northwestern Sheboygan (between Martin Avenue and Alexander Court) was settled by Slovenian immigrants and acquired the name Laibach; it was also known as Vollrath's Division.

Haack had originally been elected in 1897 as a member of the Populist Party but joined the Social Democrats after they organized locally.

[21][22] In the early 20th century, many Orthodox Greeks, Catholic Slavs and Lithuanians immigrated to Sheboygan.

In spite of its position on Lake Michigan there are vast temperature differences between seasons, although it is somewhat moderated compared with areas farther inland.

The monument is located within Deland Park along the Lake Michigan shoreline of Sheboygan, which contains one of the larger Hmong communities in the United States.

Sheboygan was the home of The Chordettes, a 1950s female group, as well as the thrash metal band Morbid Saint.

[44] The Sheboygan Jaycees sponsor Brat Days, an annual fund-raising festival that includes the Johnsonville World Bratwurst Eating Championship.

Since 2018, Sheboygan has held a bronze-level bicycle-friendly community award from the League of American Bicyclists.

[49] A 2013 project created a north-south trail using the former Chicago & Northwestern Railroad right-of-way known as the "Shoreline 400" between Pennsylvania and North avenues, with future expansion to the south planned.

Sheboygan is represented in the Wisconsin State Assembly as part of both the 26th (Terry Katsma, R–Oostburg) and 27th (Tyler Vorpagel, R–Plymouth) districts, whose boundaries split the city along Geele Avenue from the west until North 18th Street, then Superior Avenue from North 18th Street to Lake Michigan.

Sheboygan is in the 6th congressional district of Wisconsin, which is represented by Republican congressman Glenn Grothman.

Another CHR station, WCLB (950, translated on 107.3) also serves the city, along with the Sheboygan Area School District's WSHS (91.7), a member of the Wisconsin Public Radio Ideas Network, and Plymouth's WGXI (1420, translated on 98.5), a classic country station.

WYVM acts as a full-power relay of Suring's WRVN (102.7), which has a religious teaching format.

The city is served by Spectrum and U-verse, with public-access television cable TV programming provided to both systems from "WSCS", and "SASD-TV" features school board meetings, with both channels featuring meetings and other content through their websites and YouTube.

[58] Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city.

Shoreline Metro provides public bus transit throughout the city, as well as in Kohler and Sheboygan Falls.

All routes depart from the Metro Center, more commonly known as the "Transfer Point" located in the downtown.

These railroads' passenger services were abandoned during the mid-20th century but in 2008 the Wisconsin Department of Transportation proposed to reestablish passenger service to Milwaukee and Green Bay via Fond du Lac and the cities along Lake Winnebago's west shore, though political complications in the 2010s have since mothballed rail expansion in Wisconsin.

Blue Harbor Resort is located on a peninsula between the lake and the Sheboygan River's last bend.