Columbia County, Wisconsin

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

County Seat: Portage
Year Organized: 1846
Square Miles: 774

Court House:

400 DeWitt Street
County Courthouse
Portage, WI 53901-0177

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Columbia (originally Portage; see Portage, post.) County - probably named in honor of Christopher Columbus. Wis. Hist. Colls., i, p. 112. Gannett, Place Names, p. 79, appears to indicate that the name was taken from Columbia River. It was more probably given because of the town of Columbus, which was first established as Columbus precinct in 1842, and was the first county-seat of Columbia County. See A. J. Turner, Family Tree of Columbia County (Portage, 1904).

[Source: 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

History

Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "COLUMBIA, County, is bounded on the north by Adams and Marquette, on the east by Dodge, on the south by Dane, and on the west by Sauk; and is located mostly in the vicinity of the Portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. It was set off from Portage and organized February 3, 1846. The streams of this county are: the Fox, (Neenah), Wisconsin, and Crawfish rivers, and Rocky Run, Ockie, Spring, and Duck creeks. For fertility of soil and feasibility of lands, the most of which are openings and prairie, this county is unsurpassed by any other in the State. The towns of Winnebago, Port Hope, Marcellon, Scott, Randolph, Portage, Prairie, Spring Vale, and Wyocena, forming the first; and the towns of Columbus, Fountain Prairie, Hampden, Otsego, Leeds, Lowville, Lodi, Dekorra, Westpoint, and Caledonia, the second district. The vote of the electors at the annual town meeting in April, 1851, permanently located the seat of justice at Fort Winnebago... The population in 1846 was 1,969; 1847, 3,791; 1850, 9,565. Farms, 998; manufactories, 25; dwellings, 1,855."

COLUMBIA.
From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855
pg. 55-56

Population in 1850, 9,565; in 1855, 17960; increase 8,395.

The County is nearly in the centre of the present settled portion of the State, and lies on both the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, which approach within two miles of each other at Portage City--the former a rapid, changeful current, subject to sudden rises, flowing between high banks and over falls; the latter sluggish and unchanging, with marshy banks, or spreading itself into doubtful lakes, and navigable with little water.

The land of the whole of this country is good, the surface diversified with rolling prairies and burr oak openings. There is little timber growing in this County, but the want of it is well supplies by the Wisconsin pineries, the timber from which is floated down the Wisconsin River to and past this county.

Few counties in the State have increased within the past five years with the rapidly of this. All north of the Fox River, then known as Indian lands, is now well filled with people. There is consequently little good Government land to be had--in truth, it was nearly all taken as soon as brought into market.

Portage City, on the Wisconsin and Fox, here connected by a canal, is the county seat, and one of the most prosperous and busy towns of the State. The Wisconsin is navigated up to this place. It contains a bank, two weekly papers are published there, and it commands the trade of a large country, especially that lying up the Wisconsin River.

Columbus, on the Catfish, contains a population of about 1,000, and is a busy, thriving place.

The La Crosse and Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee and Watertown Rail Roads are both to pass through this County, and will soon reach it. The Wisconsin Central Road has its terminus at Portage, connecting it with Chicago direct.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 796 square miles (2,061 km²), of which, 774 square miles (2,004 km²) of it is land and 22 square miles (57 km²) of it (2.75%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Marquette County – north
Green Lake County – northeast
Dodge County – east
Dane County – south
Sauk County – west
Juneau County – northwest
Adams County – northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Arlington	village	Incorporated Area
- Cambria	village	Incorporated Area
- Columbus	city	Incorporated Area
- Courtland	town
- Dekorra	town
- Doylestown	village	Incorporated Area
- Fall River	village	Incorporated Area
- Fort Winnebago	town
- Fountain Prairie	town
- Friesland	village	Incorporated Area
- Hampden	town
- Leeds	town
- Lewiston	town
- Lodi	city	Incorporated Area
- Lowville	town
- Marcellon	town
- Newport	town
- Otsego	town
- Pacific	town
- Pardeeville	village	Incorporated Area
- Portage (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Poynette	village	Incorporated Area
- Randolph	village	Incorporated Area
- Rio	village	Incorporated Area
- Springvale	town
- West Point	town
- Wisconsin Dells	city	Incorporated Area
- Wyocena	village	Incorporated

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our 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."

Custom Search

Wisconsin State...

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Counties