Known until 1916 as Government Hill because it was used for government surveying purposes, Lapham Peak is the highest point in Waukesha County at 1233 ft. The state purchased it in 1905 as part of the farms acquired for the Statesan tuberculosis hospital, and the remaining hospital buildings are now part of the Ethan Allen School for Boys. The peak is named for Increase A. Lapham (1811-1875), a New Yorker who came to Wisconsin in 1836 as an engineer for Byron Kilbourn’s Milwaukee and Rock River Canal project, later settled in the Oconomowoc area, and lived there until his death. Best remembered as the father of the United States Weather Bureau, he was also recognized as a pioneer scholar, botanist, geologist, archeologist, and scientist. He mapped many areas of the state, including Milwaukee County, of which Waukesha County was then a part; served as State Geologist; was a founder and president of the State Historical Society; a founder of the Milwaukee Female Seminary, later Milwaukee Downer College; a member of the board of trustees of Carroll College; surveyed all Indian mounds in Wisconsin; and wrote prolifically on subjects including Wisconsin’s fauna and flora, grasses, forest trees and antiquities, and Wisconsin: Its Geography and Topography, History, Geology and Mineralogy.