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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Vilas County, Wisconsin.
Official Website
In the eighteenth century, the area was disputed by the Dakota and Ojibwe people. According to oral histories, the conflict culminated in Ojibwe victory in a battle on Strawberry Island in Flambeau Lake around 1745. Ojibwe people have continued to live in the area ever since, securing the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe.
The first recorded white settler was a man named Ashman who established a trading post in Lac du Flambeau in 1818.
In the 1850s migrants from New England, primarily from Vermont and Connecticut, constructed wagon roads and trails through Vilas County including the Ontonogan Mail Trail and a military road from Fort Howard to Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor, Michigan.
Vilas County was set off from Oneida County on April 12, 1893 and named for William Freeman Vilas. Originally from Vermont, Vilas represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1891 to 1897.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns or Communities
Arbor Vitae | Boulder Junction | Cloverland | Conover | Eagle River (County Seat) | Katinka Village | Lac du Flambeau | Land o' Lakes | Lincoln | Manitowish Waters | Marlands | Phelps | Plum Lake | Presque Isle | St. Germain | Sayner | Star Lake | Washington | Winchester
Cemeteries
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (part)
Olson Memorial Library - Genealogy & History
Eagle River Genealogical Society
