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–Not graded
History · Brule

Brule’s post office opened in 1890, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 4 old photos and papers and maps from 1961 on.

1890first post office
0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Brule’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Brule began

When was Brule founded?

1890

The Brule post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Winneboujou (1898), Waino (1900) and Bellwood (1904), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 607136 years
Founding year: the first Brule post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Brule’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Brule, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Brule’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Brule’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewBruleBattle: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Brule’s post office has been open since 1890. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Brule
1890–today
Winneboujou
1898–1900
Waino
1900–1911
Bellwood
1904–1911
18901960today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BellwoodWainoWinneboujou
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Brule
Ever RestPine Ridge

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Brule came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Brule.

Read it all →

The Brule River is one of the preeminent trout streams in North America, with abundant native and migratory steelhead, brown, and brook trout. Located near the primary trout spawning bed for western Lake Superior, Brule is a destination for serious fly fishermen from the around the world.

Four United States presidents, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower, have summered near Brule in some of the many Adirondack-style lodges erected by prominent families from Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

In 1899, Professor Ulysses Sherman Grant, of Northwestern University, inspected the Brule, Wisconsin area for ancient copper deposits. CIA chief of counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton had a home on the river.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Brule, 1890 to 1961

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1890Post officeThe Brule post office opens
  3. 1891In the archiveBruleBattle
  4. 1898Post officeThe Winneboujou post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900Post officeThe Winneboujou post office closes
  7. 1900Post officeThe Waino post office opens
  8. 1911Post officeThe Waino post office closes
  9. 1928In the archiveMap of Brule and Douglas County, Wisconsin, 1928 NYT
  10. 1935Born hereDean Nyquist is born here
  11. 1961On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Brule, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1920s3 items
BruleBattle1891BruleBattleMap of Brule and Douglas County, Wisconsin, 1928 NYT1928Map of Brule and Douglas County, Wisconsin, 1928 NYTMapCoolidge gazes around the summer White House1928Coolidge gazes around the summer White House
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Coolidge HooverDate?Coolidge Hoover
Today1 recent
WIMap-doton-Brule2004WIMap-doton-Brule
On the map

Brule on the map, 1961 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brule. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Brule on the 1961 USGS mapBrule on the 1984 USGS map1961Brule sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Brule.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

BruleBattle
Retake this viewBruleBattle, 1891

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Brule’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

HughesIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMapleIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townOulu1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHighlandIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLake Nebagamon1 historic placeCCloverlandIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Brule’s history

What year was Brule founded?

The Brule post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.