The Building That Would Not Sit Still: Horicon’s Old Stone Shop Today, at the corner of Mill and Vine streets sits nothing more dramatic than a highway bridge and the quiet current of the Rock River sliding underneath it. It’s easy to stand there and forget how much history that stretch of water has actually …
Drive the back road between Horicon and Beaver Dam today and you could pass through Rolling Prairie without ever knowing you’d been there. It’s not a village anymore, not officially — just an unincorporated place name hung on a stretch of country between the towns of Oak Grove and Burnett, a few farms and a …
The Marsh the Rich Guys Tried to Own Before it was a national wildlife refuge with a visitor center and a gift shop, Horicon Marsh was 32,000 acres of the best duck hunting in the Midwest — and for about forty years, a handful of very rich men did everything short of putting up a …
Thirty Trains a Day, a Wreck in the Dark, and the Hotel at the Crossing Sometime before dawn on the morning of July 12, 1901, the engineer of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul passenger train No. 3 — due into Portage at a quarter to four — throttled up for the crossing at Minnesota Junction, …
Blankets, Nitro, and a Borrowed Buggy The Great Horicon Post Office Job of 1913 Picture Horicon in the second week of June, 1913. The marsh north of town would have been turning green, the cattails springing up, the smell of water that rises off the Rock River basin once the weather turns, and by mid-month …
Nestled within the peaceful confines of Bowling Green Park in Horicon, Wisconsin, stands a historic relic: a World War I MK1 60-pounder artillery piece. This imposing gun offers a fascinating glimpse into the technological advancements and strategic considerations of early 20th-century artillery — and its arrival in Horicon is a story worth telling. Special Note …
A History of Tourism at Horicon and Horicon Marsh Long before Horicon was a city — before the dam, the ducks, the duck hunters, the drainage ditches, and the hard-won restoration — this corner of Dodge County was shaped by forces far older than any of us. What we now know as Horicon Marsh began …
OLD COLD CASE Horicon City Marshal William Gibson — Civil War veteran, father of four, a man his community trusted with their safety — was shot once, point-blank, on the steps of his own jailhouse, in front of his ten-year-old son. The killer vanished into the dark Wisconsin night. Suspects were arrested across the state. …
Community stories are vital to understanding our history. Discover how they shape our identity and connect us to the past.
144 Years Ago… When Smallpox Came to Horicon — April 28, 1882 Smallpox had a devastating effect on Native Americans when Europeans arrived on this continent, and it did not end there. Smallpox was a constant threat, with mortality rates up to 70%. A new wave of immigration from Europe in 1880–1883 really leapfrogged the …
