Neillsville

Neillsville is a small town of about 3000 in rural central Wisconsin. It lies on the Black River in farm country, at the southern edge of the Northern Highlands, overlooking the flat bottom-lands that once were Glacial Lake Wisconsin. If you like quaint and quiet, it can be a nice place to spend a weekend.

Understand
Logging began on the Black River in the mid-1800s. Neillsville had early sawmills, and other businesses grew up around them. Fortunes were made, big houses and stores were built, and the town grew. As the trees ran out, dairy farming took over in the surrounding country and the businesses in town shifted to serve the farmers.

Fortunately, things were prosperous enough in later years to keep the heart of town alive, but not prosperous enough to fund tearing down and rebuilding, as happened in some other places. So today the old part of Neillsville has almost a Tom-Sawyer feel on a warm summer afternoon.

Get in
Neillsville is on highway 10, three hours east of Minneapolis and four hours northwest of Milwaukee.

Do

 * Drive out into the countryside. Follow highway 10 east along Pleasant Ridge, looking at the big old Italianate farmhouses and enjoying the views.  At the second curve, fourteen miles out, you'll pass a cluster of Amish farms, with an unusual barn cleaning system on the west side of the road.  Then follow Fremont Road back west back to Neillsville.  On a summer day other than Sunday you may see Amish farmers working with horses, and maybe even an old hayloader!
 * Drive out into the countryside. Follow highway 10 east along Pleasant Ridge, looking at the big old Italianate farmhouses and enjoying the views.  At the second curve, fourteen miles out, you'll pass a cluster of Amish farms, with an unusual barn cleaning system on the west side of the road.  Then follow Fremont Road back west back to Neillsville.  On a summer day other than Sunday you may see Amish farmers working with horses, and maybe even an old hayloader!
 * Drive out into the countryside. Follow highway 10 east along Pleasant Ridge, looking at the big old Italianate farmhouses and enjoying the views.  At the second curve, fourteen miles out, you'll pass a cluster of Amish farms, with an unusual barn cleaning system on the west side of the road.  Then follow Fremont Road back west back to Neillsville.  On a summer day other than Sunday you may see Amish farmers working with horses, and maybe even an old hayloader!
 * Drive out into the countryside. Follow highway 10 east along Pleasant Ridge, looking at the big old Italianate farmhouses and enjoying the views.  At the second curve, fourteen miles out, you'll pass a cluster of Amish farms, with an unusual barn cleaning system on the west side of the road.  Then follow Fremont Road back west back to Neillsville.  On a summer day other than Sunday you may see Amish farmers working with horses, and maybe even an old hayloader!