In 1870, atop Lapham Peak, then known as Government Hill, the United State Army Signal Corps established one of its original National Weather Service signal stations. Weather data was received there from Pikes Peak, Colorado, and relayed to United State Weather Bureau headquarters in Chicago. Lapham Peak, the highest point in Waukesha County, is named for Increase Allen Lapham (1811-1875), Wisconsin’s premier 19th century naturalist, archeologist, and scholar. From this peak, Lapham recorded many weather observations for his pioneering work in meteorology, including publishing isothermal maps of Wisconsin and working with the Smithsonian Institution as a weather observer for the Great Lakes region. Concerned about potential storm disasters to Great Lakes shipping and Wisconsin farming, Lapham proposed a state weather forecasting service in 1850. Although the state did not adopt it, he rewrote the proposal for a national weather service, which Congress approved on February 9, 1870. On November 8th, while serving as assistant to the Chief Signal Corps Officer, Lapham recorded the first published national weather forecast, calling for high winds and falling temperatures for Chicago, Detroit, and the Eastern cities.