Oneida County, Wisconsin

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

County Seat: Rhinelander
Year Organized: 1885
Square Miles: 1,125

Court House:

1 Courthouse Square
County Courthouse
Rhinelander, WI 54501-0400

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for a tribe of New York Indians, a branch of the Iroquois, who removed to Wisconsin early in the nineteenth century. The name is said to signify "granite people." - Gannett, Place Names, p. 196.

[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

County History

Oneida County was formed in 1885 from a part of Lincoln County which was formed in 1874 from part of Marathon County. In turn, Marathon County was formed in 1850 from Portage County, one of the original Territorial counties. Thus, someone living in Oneida County today is on ground that was Portage County until 1850, Marathon County from 1850 to 1874 and Lincoln County from 1874 to 1885.
In 1893 Oneida County underwent significant change when the northwest corner was joined with part of Ashland County to form Iron County and an even greater portion of the northern part of the county went to form Vilas County.

Present day Oneida County is bordered by Vilas County on the north and Price County on the west. The southern border of Oneida County joins Lincoln County on the western part and Langlade County on the eastern part. Forest County is on Oneida County's eastern border.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,236 square miles (3,201 km²), of which, 1,124 square miles (2,912 km²) of it is land and 111 square miles (288 km²) of it (9.01%) is water. Most people visit Oneida County to enjoy its lakes. In particular, tourists flock to Minocqua, a town of nearly 5,000 people with a summer population around 15,000.

Neighboring Counties:

Vilas County - north
Forest County - east
Langlade County - southeast
Lincoln County - south
Price County - west

Cities and Towns:

- Arbor Vitae	town
- Cassian	town
- Enterprise	town
- Hazelhurst	town
- Lake Tomahawk	town
- Little Rice	town
- Lynne	town
- Minocqua	town
- Monico	town
- Newbold	town
- Nokomis	town
- Pelican	town
- Piehl	town
- Pine Lake	town
- Rhinelander (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Schoepke	town
- Stella	town
- Sugar Camp	town
- Three Lakes	town
- Woodboro	town
- Woodruff	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."