Taylor County, Wisconsin
| Taylor County, Wisconsin | |
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The Taylor County courthouse in Medford is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 Location in the U.S. state of Wisconsin |
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 Wisconsin's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1875 |
| Seat | Medford |
| Largest city | Medford |
| Area | |
| • Total | 984 sq mi (2,549 km2) |
| • Land | 975 sq mi (2,525 km2) |
| • Water | 9.5 sq mi (25 km2), 1.0% |
| Population | |
| • (2010) | 20,689 |
| • Density | 21/sq mi (8/km²) |
| Congressional district | 7th |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 |
| Website | www |
Taylor County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,689. Its county seat is Medford.
The earliest recorded event in Taylor county probably occurred in 1661, when Wisconsin was part of New France. A band of Huron Indians from eastern Ontario had fled the Iroquois and taken refuge near the headwaters of the Black River, probably around Lake Chelsea in the northeast part of the county. Father René Menard, a French Jesuit priest who had travelled up the Great Lakes as far as Keweenaw Bay in upper Michigan, heard that these Hurons were starving. He decided to try to reach them to baptize them, despite his own weak health and scant supplies. In mid-summer he and a French fur trader set out, following rivers and streams in birchbark canoes down into Wisconsin. Finally, a day's journey from the Huron camp, Father Menard separated from his travelling companion at a rapids to carry some supplies. He was never seen again. The place where he disappeared is believed to be the dells of the Big Rib River, below Goodrich in the southeast corner of Taylor county.
On June 8, 1847, before any settlers or loggers, a team of surveyors entered the county southwest of Medford, where County E now enters from Clark County. They were working for the U.S. government, marking a north–south line called the Fourth Principal Meridian, from which much of the land in the state would be measured. For six days they worked their way through woods and swamps, up what is now the southern part of E and across the valley that is now the Mondeaux Flowage, before continuing north into what is now Price County. The head of the team wrote of the trip:
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