Jackson County, Wisconsin

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

County Seat: Black River Falls
Year Organized: 1853
Square Miles: 987

Court House:

307 Main Street
County Courthouse,
Black River Falls, WI 54615-1756

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Jackson County was named in honor of President Andrew Jackson - Gannett, Place Names, p. 145.

[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

Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 19,100. Its county seat is Black River FallsJackson County was formed from Crawford County in 1853.

Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "JACKSON, County, was set off from La Crosse at the January session of the legislature in 1853, and includes all of said county of La Crosse, north of town 18. The seat of justice is at the village of Black River Falls, on Black river. In this county about 15,000,000 feet of pine lumber is sawed annually. For further particulars, see La Crosse county."

JACKSON.
From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855
pg. 76

Jackson Country is watered by Black River and its tributaries, which afford abundance of water power. The southern part is mostly prairie--the northern abounds in pine, which is floated down Black River. The land is represented to be of the best quality, and the County is rapidly filling with settlers.

Iron ore is found in abundance, and the mines will soon be worked.

Black River Falls, the Country Seat, has an excellent water power. A large amount of lumber is manufactured yearly at this point, and mills and machine shops are under process of construction, together with rolling mills for the manufacture of iron.

Cataract, on Rathbun Creek, is a small village, has a saw and grist mill, and a Post Office is established there.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,000 square miles (2,590 km²), of which, 987 square miles (2,557 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (33 km²) of it (1.28%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Clark County - north
Wood County - east
Juneau County - southeast
Monroe County - south
La Crosse County - southwest
Trempealeau County - west
Eau Claire County - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Albion	town
- Alma Center	village	Incorporated Area
- Bear Bluff	town
- Black River Falls (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Brockway	town
- Curran	town
- Garden Valley	town
- Garfield	town
- Hixton	village	Incorporated Area
- Irving	town
- Komensky	town
- Melrose	village	Incorporated Area
- Merrillan	village	Incorporated Area
- Millston	town
- North Bend	town
- Northfield	town
- Taylor	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

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."

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