Sun Prairie is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located east of Madison, Wisconsin it is part of the Madison Madison metropolitan area. As of the 2000 census, the city's population was 20,369 and was expected to double in size by 2020 to around 40,000. It is the sixth-fastest growing city in Wisconsin, and the fastest-growing among cities of 10,000 or more, growing an estimated 23.6% between 2000 and 2006.

History
President Martin Van Buren commissioned a party of 45 men, including Augustus A. Bird, to build a territory capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. The group of men left Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May...

Sun Prairie is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located east of Madison, Wisconsin it is part of the Madison Madison metropolitan area. As of the 2000 census, the city's population was 20,369 and was expected to double in size by 2020 to around 40,000. It is the sixth-fastest growing city in Wisconsin, and the fastest-growing among cities of 10,000 or more, growing an estimated 23.6% between 2000 and 2006.

History
President Martin Van Buren commissioned a party of 45 men, including Augustus A. Bird, to build a territory capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. The group of men left Milwaukee, Wisconsin 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 city of Sun Prairie, which grew from that town, was Municipal corporation in 1958.

Environs
The city has a total area of, whereas the town, according to the United States Census Bureau, has a total area of, all of it land.

=Geology=
Dane County, of which the city of Sun Prairie is a part, is considered to possess a'varied and unique'geologic and physical geography setting. The center of Dane County contains the Yahara River, encompassing part of the city. This area contains deep glacial deposits created by the last Wisconsin Glaciation which began over 110,000 years ago and receded only 10-15,000 years ago. This glaciation is also notable in that it also created the Great Lakes when the Laurentide ice sheet melted. These glacial deposits dammed up the large valleys created by the glacier's passing, which formed a chain of large lakes and wetlands, marking the physiographic area as primarily glacial; Moraine#Ground_moraines with extensive areas of peat and marsh deposits.