Founding year: the first Black Wolf post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Black Wolf’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Black Wolf is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Black Wolf’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Black Wolf’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Black Wolf’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Black Wolf yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Black Wolf is a town in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,429 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Black Wolf, Black Wolf Point, Little Point, Paukotuk, and Point Comfort are located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1848. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,410 in 2010, 2,429 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Black Wolf in 1880
Passages that mention Black Wolf, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest1880 · page 285Read the page →
Read the text
The Town of Brighton included in its limits the present towns of Black Wolf, Nekimi and part of Algoma. In 1850, the name of the Town of Brighton was changed to Nekimi; and on the fourteenth of November, 1850, the County Board set off the Town of Black Wolf ORGANIC ELECTION.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest1880 · page 280Read the page →
Read the text
and clump of hazel-brush, and were the sites of Indian villages that formerly occupied the more eligible points on the lake-shore. On one of these points, called Black Wolf Point, was the village of Black Wolf — a famous and shrewd Winnebago chief, who was skilled in all the arts of Indian diplomacy, and who exercised much influence in Indian affairs. The
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
The Black Wolf post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Black Wolf rank for history?
Black Wolf is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Black Wolf?
17% of Black Wolf’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1971.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
