| County: | Vilas County |
| State: | Wisconsin |
| Ex Image: | Vilas County Courthouse.jpg |
| Ex Image Cap: | Vilas County Courthouse |
| Founded Year: | 1893 |
| Founded Date: | April 12 |
| Seat Wl: | Eagle River |
| Largest City Wl: | Eagle River |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1018 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 857 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 161 |
| Area Percentage: | 16% |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 23047 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 26.9 |
| Pop Est As Of: | 2023 |
| Population Est: | 23855 |
| Time Zone: | Central |
| Web: | www.vilascountywi.gov |
| District: | 7th |
Vilas County is a county in the state of Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,047. Its county seat is Eagle River.[1] The county partly overlaps the reservation of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Native Americans have lived in what is now Vilas County for thousands of years. The county contains archaeological sites dating to the prehistoric Woodland period.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]
The first recorded white settler was a man named Ashman who established a trading post in Lac du Flambeau in 1818.[5]
In the 1850s migrants from New England, primarily from Vermont and Connecticut, constructed wagon roads and trails through Vilas County including the Ontonagan Mail Trail and a military road from Fort Howard to Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor, Michigan.[5]
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.[6] [7]
Logging began in the late 1850s. Loggers came from Cortland County, New York, Carroll County, New Hampshire, Orange County, Vermont and Down East Maine in what is now Washington County, Maine and Hancock County, Maine.[8] Many dams were built throughout the county to assist loggers as they sent their timber downstream to the lumber and paper mills in the Wisconsin River valley.[5] After the county was founded in 1893 and logging ceased to be the primary industry in the area, migrants seeking other forms of employment settled in the county. These later immigrants primarily came from Germany, Ireland and Poland though some came from other parts of the United States as well.[8]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and (16%) is water.[9] There are 1,318 lakes in the county. Much of Vilas County is covered by the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest as well as extensive county forest lands. Vilas County waters drain to Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and the Mississippi River. The Wisconsin, Flambeau, and Presque Isle Rivers all find their headwaters in Vilas County.
Although these two forests have been administratively combined into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, it is important to note that the county contains portions of both original forests.
As of the census of 2020,[10] the population was 23,047. The population density was 26.9/mi2. There were 24,486 housing units at an average density of 28.5/mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 85.5% White, 9.8% Native American, 0.3% Black or African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.5% from other races, and 3.7% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.0% Hispanic or Latino of any race.
As of the census[11] of 2000, there were 21,033 people, 9,066 households, and 6,300 families residing in the county. The population density was 24/mi2. There were 22,397 housing units at an average density of 26/mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 89.69% White, 0.20% Black or African American, 9.08% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 0.65% from two or more races. 0.86% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 37.8% were of German, 7.9% Polish, 6.6% Irish and 5.3% English ancestry. 95.9% spoke English, 1.3% Spanish and 1.2% German as their first language.
There were 9,066 households, out of which 23.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.40% were married couples living together, 7.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.50% were non-families. 26.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.73.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 20.70% under the age of 18, 5.00% from 18 to 24, 23.10% from 25 to 44, 28.50% from 45 to 64, and 22.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 99.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.80 males.
In 2017, there were 186 births, giving a general fertility rate of 74.9 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the 7th highest rate out of all 72 Wisconsin counties.[12] Additionally, there were twelve reported induced abortions performed on women of Vilas County residence in 2017.[13]
The economy in Vilas County is based on tourism centered on its high concentration of lakes and forests. Hunting and sport fishing are the backbones of the fall economy, and ice fishing and especially snowmobiling makes up the bulk of the economy in the wintertime. Logging, forestry, construction and government also account for important parts of the local economy.
The municipalities with their population within Vilas County and their total population as of the 2010 Census, are:[14]
Vilas County has long been one of the most consistently Republican counties in Wisconsin. Since 1944, the county has only once voted Democrat, supporting Lyndon B. Johnson in his nationwide landslide of 1964, and even then, Johnson won by just 14 votes and 0.25% in the county.