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is a city in Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, with the majority of the city located in Racine County. The population was 9,936 at the 2000 census.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the area, Native American mounds were constructed in what is now Burlington. Although around 1830 a small Potawatomi village stood in what is now the Town of Burlington, there was no Native American settlement in the area encompassed by the present city.
The earliest certain European presence in what is now Burlington was in the fall of 1799, when a group of French explorers and missionaries, led by Francis Morgan de Vereceones, made a portage from the Root River to the Fox River, reaching the Fox at about Burlington's present location.
The earliest European settlers in Burlington were four men: Moses and Lemuel Smith, the sons of a Revolutionary War veteran, Benjamin Perce, and William Whiting, all of whom arrived on December 27 or December 28, 1835 and built a cabin; Moses Smith and Whiting had been in the area previously, making a so-called "jackknife claim" (carving their names and the date on trees in the vicinity), on December 15, 1835. Other settlers arrived in the spring and summer of 1836, mostly from New England; they named their settlement Foxville. In 1836, the residents of what was then known as Foxville unanimously decided to change their settlement's name to "Burlington", after Burlington, Vermont; Foxville continued to be used, however, until the name was officially changed on July 15, 1839.
Until that time, Foxville had been in Michigan Territory; on July 3, 1836, however, the act of Congress organizing the Wisconsin Territory went into effect. When counties were created, Foxville fell within the borders of Milwaukee County, which at that time included, the present-day county of Racine. On December 7, 1836, Racine County, containing Foxville, was separated from the rest of Milwaukee County. Foxville became the official name of the settlement on March 21, 1837, when the first post office was created, with Moses Smith as the first postmaster. In May 1837, a sawmill, the first frame building in the settlement, and a dam on the Fox River were completed.
On January 2, 1838, Rochester township, which included Foxville, as well as all of Racine County west of Mount Pleasant was established. On March 9, 1839, Burlington township, including at the time what is now the Town of Dover and much of Brighton, was separated from Rochester.
Burlington was incorporated as a village in 1886; in 1900 it became a city.