The Grafton Riverwalk project improves water quality in the Milwaukee River watershed, part of the Milwaukee Basin in southeast Wisconsin, by stabilizing riverbanks in Veterans Memorial Park to reduce erosion, toxins, and nutrients, while native vegetation and microorganisms intercept and break down pollutants; it also makes the riverbank more accessible for recreation such as walking, jogging, fishing, and boating. The Milwaukee Basin covers roughly 860 square miles and drains into Lake Michigan, a drinking water source for more than 1 million people. Grafton’s history has long been tied to the river: Native Americans knew the area as part of an important regional trail and a seat of council, European explorers navigated the river and traded with the Menomonee and Sac (Sauk) peoples in the 1600s, and European settlers later built a dam in 1842 to power a saw mill, flour mill, and woolen mill in a community first called Hamburg and renamed Grafton in 1846. The arrival of the railroad in 1870 marked a shift from agriculture toward manufacturing, and the later Interurban electric railway, beginning in 1905, linked Ozaukee County with Milwaukee and Sheboygan until 1951 along a route now followed in part by the 30-mile Ozaukee Interurban Trail. Grafton also developed industries tied to local dolomite and limestone deposits, producing lime from the 1840s through the 1920s, with three restored kilns remaining in Lime Kiln Park, and in the early 1900s the Wisconsin Chair Co. and its Paramount Records subsidiary became a primary source of early recordings by African American artists who helped shape blues, jazz, and rock music. Veterans Memorial Park, once known as Mill Pond Park beside the old mill pond, was renamed in 1992 to honor Grafton veterans; it includes a 75mm Pack Howitzer, a World War II-era gun installed in the 1950s after use in training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and its basketball court was refurbished in 2012 and dedicated to Josh Davis-Joiner, a Grafton High School youth who died during practice.