Portage County Historical Society

Site Navigation

	Visitors Since June 2000

Doorway to Portage County's History

Museums etc.

Heritage Park - Currently 10 buildings and GB&W caboose #617.
Beth Israel Synagogue Museum - a Jewish community once thrived in Stevens Point.
Rising Star Mill - Located in Nelsonville, built in 1868.
Fire Station - this is the oldest surviving municipal building in Stevens Point.
About the Society - Consider joining the Society. Membership Information.
See also our Google Map.
New Section featuring Photo Albums and Videos.

Malcolm Rosholt Online Archives

Our extensive Online Archives consists of over 400 articles. Search this web site by key word to assist in navigating our extensive Archives.
Visit our collection at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and see the Archives and Area Research Center for obituaries, cemetery lists, and census data.
Main Railroad History Site - features articles and histories of railroads.
Outside the lines - Articles that are not about Portage County but are of historic value.

Begin Your Tour of Portage County, Wisconsin

View historic Time Line.
Read the 1857 "Handbook of Stevens Point"
Drive the Polish Heritage Highway in Portage County
Or, take the Polish Heritage Trail.
Take a Tour of Portage County.

Annual Events

Look at our Annual Events page.
Our Plover Portage Rendezvous/Threads of History held the third weekend of July. Buckskinners portray life during Wisconsin's Fur Trade Era circa 1830.
Read and see more about our past Rendezvous and Thread of History event.
Our newest event is a Civil War Encampment.

What's New?

5/10/08 Upcoming Events page updated

3/2/08 Portage County Plat Book 1895 added.

10/21/07 New section on Annual Meetings added.

10/21/07 "About the Society" page updated.

9/1/07 Civil War Video's Added

8/27/07 Updated Civil War Encampment page.

8/18/07 Added new section on Albums and Videos.

History of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Polonia.

Outside The Lines section has been added.

Check out our Calendar of Events Powered by Google.

Check out our new Google Map.

The first addition to our Military History Section. A World War II Multimedia Interactive Time Line.

Plover Portage Rendezvous is scheduled for July 21-22, 2007.

The Second Annual Civil War Encampment will be Aug. 25-26, 2007 at Heritage Park.

A Frequently Asked Questions page has been created to assist in using this site.

Publications

Land and Lumber
The history of any place is the story of people, ideas and resources. It tells how the people of a community used the resources present to realize their ideas. In Portage County the key resources were--and still are--water, land and lumber. They were used by native people to build a culture, much of which is lost today, but whose remnants give evidence of a people of spirit and Imagination.

Native Realm
Portage County, Wisconsin, is the home of one of the oldest Polish-American communities in the United States. Polish immigrants settled here, built solid farming communities and contributed mightily to the growth of the city of Stevens Point. In the course of nearly a century and a half, they created a unique community -- American as any other, but also well aware of and proud of its Polish heritage.

Portage County Shadows
In this colorful collection of true stories, seven well known local historians and writers remember the notorious side of Portage County, Wisconsin's, past. Wendell Nelson writes of Stevens Point's turn-of the-century "Madame Extraordinaire." George Rogers tells the story of a conniving wheeler-dealer who now has local street named after him, and Justin Isherwood reflects on the intense relationship between the river and the river pilot.

Out of the Shadows
In 1990, a collection of true stories reflecting the notorious side of Portage County, Wisconsin's past was published. Portage County Shadows brought to life some fascinating characters and events on the darker side of our county's history Out of the Shadows illuminates some of our nobler citizens, including Albert Ellis and Mandana Hale Bliss, pioneers in their respective fields of journalism and education.

See more of our publications.