| County: | Grant County |
| State: | Wisconsin |
| Founded Year: | 1837 |
| Seat Wl: | Lancaster |
| Largest City Wl: | Platteville |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1183 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 1147 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 36 |
| Area Percentage: | 3.1 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 51938 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 45.3 |
| Pop Est As Of: | 2023 |
| Population Est: | 51409 |
| Time Zone: | Central |
| Web: | www.co.grant.wi.gov/ |
| Ex Image: | Grant County, Wisconsin Courthouse.jpg |
| Ex Image Cap: | Grant County Courthouse, Armand D. Koch, architect, 1902 |
| District: | 3rd |
Grant County is the most southwestern county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,938.[1] Its county seat is Lancaster and its largest city is Platteville.[2] The county is named after the Grant River, in turn named after a fur trader who lived in the area when Wisconsin was a territory.[3] Grant County comprises the Platteville Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is in the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, and is crossed by travelers commuting to Madison, Wisconsin, from a number of eastern Iowan cities, and by residents of northern Illinois traveling to the Twin Cities or La Crosse, Wisconsin.
What is now Grant County was largely uninhabited prior to contact with Europeans, as it was a border region between the territories of the Kickapoo, Menominee, and Illinois tribes. The only Native Americans to have a permanent settlement in the area were the Fox tribe, who had a temporary village in what is now the extreme northeast of the county during the mid-1700s.
Between 1520 and 1620 this area was nominally ruled by Spain, although the lack of explorers left the region completely untouched by Spanish authority. The first Frenchmen to reach what is now Grant County were Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, who explored the region in the spring of 1673, after setting out from what would later become Green Bay. No permanent settlement was made. In 1680 Louis Hennepin also passed through the region that would later become Grant County, also making no permanent settlement. In 1689 Nicholas Perrot passed through the territory and claimed it for the King of France. The first settlement was a temporary trading post that Pierre Marin founded in 1725.
The British technically ruled the region during the period between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, though no effort was made to settle or administer the region. After the abandonment of Marin's trading post, the region went unvisited until the expedition of Jonathan Carver, a New England Yankee who passed through what is now Grant County in 1766 during an attempt to discover the Pacific Ocean.
In 1783, the British government acknowledged the jurisdiction of the United States over the land east of the Mississippi River, including what is now Grant County. American and European traders visiting the region over the next decades were yet as nomadic as the Indians, and no records survive. Grant County was created as part of Wisconsin Territory in 1837.[4] It was named after an Indian trader; his first name, origins, and eventual fate are all unknown.[5]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and (3.1%) is water.[6]
As of the census of 2020,[7] the population was 51,938. The population density was 45.3/mi2. There were 22,110 housing units at an average density of 19.3/mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 93.8% White, 1.3% Black or African American, 0.8% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 1.0% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race.
As of the census of 2000,[8] there were 49,597 people, 18,465 households, and 12,390 families residing in the county. The population density was 43/mi2. There were 19,940 housing units at an average density of 17/mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 98.23% White, 0.52% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.14% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.56% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 52.0% were of German, 9.2% English, 8.8% Irish, 6.6% American and 6.4% Norwegian ancestry.
There were 18,465 households, out of which 30.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.10% were married couples living together, 7.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.90% were non-families. 26.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.70% under the age of 18, 14.60% from 18 to 24, 24.80% from 25 to 44, 21.60% from 45 to 64, and 15.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 103.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.00 males.
The Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (WSPF), a Wisconsin Department of Corrections prison for men, is located in Boscobel in Grant County.[9] [10]
Grant County has been a reliably Republican county at the federal level for most of its existence. Starting in 1992 however, it voted for the Democratic candidate for president six elections in a row before shifting back to the GOP in 2016.
Fair play was founded by a prospector, rather than a farmer or logger, and within two years the prospector found ore, the settlement was built on the corner of Hwy 11 and Sandy Hook Road, the place was rather rowdy and fights based in greed was not uncommon, the place got it's moniker when a violent fight broke out and one contender did not carry weapon, but the other man did, and thus the crowd started chanting 'Fair Play! Fair Play! Fair Play!' until the fight ended, and thus the village formerly known as 'Hard Town' was redubbed as 'Fair Play', in 1846, the last threatened duel took place and afterwards the settlement was abandoned.
Paris was a settlement 1/8th of a mile South of 'Dickeyville' near Hwy 151/61 between 1838 and 1843, a small settlement built on the Platte River, the founder had malaria and he named the place after his homelands capitol, Paris, (France), he built a bridge across the river that proved the counties first one made, the founder, Detantabaritz, had started experiencing financial issues, and he ended up facing a creditor, choosing swords as dueling weapons as he was himself a Dragoon, the creditor backed down, and later the founder took his own life due to debt anxieties, and now only a tavern remains, selling ribs.