Ashland County, Wisconsin

Ashland County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Ashland
Year Organized: 1860
Square Miles: 1,044

Court House:

201 West Main Street, Room 301
County Courthouse
Ashland, WI 54806-1612

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county was named after the village, which was named in honor of the Kentucky homestead of Henry Clay. Martin Beaser, one of the earliest settlers of the village, and an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, is credited with the selection of the name.

[Source: Place Names, p. 29; Hist. No. Wis., p.67. Kellogg, Louise Phelps. "Derivation of County Names" in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1909, pages 219-231.]

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Ashland County, created in 1848 from previously unorganized territory, is named after Henry Clay's home in Kentucky. Located in northwest Wisconsin, the county seat is Ashland.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,294 square miles (5,941 km²), of which, 1,044 square miles (2,703 km²) of it is land and 1,250 square miles (3,237 km²) of it (54.49%) is water.

Ashland County is anchored by the City of Ashland, on the southern shore of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay. Ashland's harbor, nestled in protected Chequamegon Bay.

Much of inland Ashland County is covered by the gently rolling terrain of the Chequamegon National Forest. With 411 lakes, 632 miles of rivers and streams, 200 miles of hiking trails, 200 miles of motorized trails, over 800 wetlands, nearly 11,000 acres of wilderness areas, 50 miles of cross-country ski trails and more than 300 miles of snowmobile trails.

Neighboring Counties:

Iron County – east
Price County – southeast
Sawyer County – southwest
Bayfield County – northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Agenda	town
- Ashland (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Butternut	village	Incorporated Area
- Chippewa	town
- Gingles	town
- Jacobs	town
- La Pointe	town
- Marengo	town
- Mellen	city	Incorporated Area
- Morse	town
- Peeksville	town
- Sanborn	town
- Shanagolden	town
- White River	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."