Sun Prairie

Sun Prairie is a city in Dane County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. A suburb of Madison, it is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 29,441 at the 2010 U.S. Census. It is the second most populous city in Dane County after Madison.HistoryPresident Martin Van Buren commissioned a party of 45 men, including Augustus A. Bird, to build a capitol for the Territory of Wisconsin in Madison. The group left Milwaukee on May 26, 1837, and traveled for days in the rain. On June 9, the group emerged at the edge of the prairie and with the sun shining for the first time in days, carved the words "Sun Prairie" into a tree. Charles Bird returned to the area two years later and became the first settler.The Town of Sun Prairie was created on February 2, 1846. The village of Sun Prairie, which grew from that town, was incorporated in an act of the Wisconsin legislature on March 6, 1868. Sun Prairie was incorporated as a city in 1958.GeographyAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.25sqmi, of which, 12.23sqmi is land and 0.02sqmi is water./>GeologyThe Yahara River Valley encompasses part of the city of Sun Prairie. This area contains deep glacial deposits created by the Wisconsin Glaciation. The eastern part of Dane County, known as the drumlin and marsh physiographic area, includes most of Sun Prairie. The deposits found in this area include general glacial deposits and marsh deposits, and consist of many small drumlins interspersed with shallow glacial deposits having poorly defined drainage.