Monroe County, Wisconsin

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

County Seat: Sparta
Year Organized: 1854
Square Miles: 901

Court House:

202 S. K Street
County Courthouse
Sparta, WI 54656-2187

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of President James Monroe - Gannett, Place Names, p. 182.

[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

Monroe County, created in 1854 from La Crosse County, is named after James Monroe, the 5th President of the United States. Located in southwest Wisconsin, the county seat is Sparta.

MONROE.--Population 2,151.
From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855
pg. 85-86

Formed out of La Crosse in 1854. It is watered by the heads of the Kickapoo, La Crosse and Lemonwier Rivers. Forests of pine are about the sources of the Kickapoo, which are yet scarcely broken in upon. The settlements are few and small, and the land mostly unsold.

There is much good furming land, though most of it is of light soil, and will be rejected till other lands are occupied. It lies in the La Crosse land district.

Sparta, the County Seat, at the junction of Beaver Creek and La Crosse River, 30 miles from La Crosse, contains a population of about 700, and is still rapidly increasing. It has a good water power, and like all other new places, schools, public houses, stores &c., are there.

Jackson, on the Lemonwier, has been but recently laid out, and has a valuable mill privilege, in which the proprietor is erecting saw mills, white pine abounding in its vicinity.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 908 square miles (2,352 km²), of which, 901 square miles (2,333 km²) of it is land and 8 square miles (19 km²) of it (0.83%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Jackson County - north
Juneau County - east
Vernon County - south
La Crosse County - west

Cities and Towns:

- Adrian	town
- Angelo	town
- Cashton	village	Incorporated Area
- Grant	town
- Kendall	village	Incorporated Area
- La Grange	town
- Leon	town
- Lincoln	town
- Melvina	village	Incorporated Area
- New Lyme	town
- Norwalk	village	Incorporated Area
- Oakdale	village	Incorporated Area
- Portland	town
- Ridgeville	town
- Sparta (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Tomah	city	Incorporated Area
- Warrens	village	Incorporated Area
- Wellington	town
- Wells	town
- Wilton	village	Incorporated Area
- Wyeville	village	Incorporated Area

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!"

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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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