Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Kliese Housebarn. Below: maps from 1984 on and old-book passages.
The Emmet post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Emmet is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 Emmet’s 8.3 sits above most of its state (73% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Emmet’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Emmet yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Emmet is a town in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,310 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1848. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,302 in 2010, 1,310 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Emmet, cut from the printed page as they were published.
several points, while Ashippun River, as it passes through the southeastern corner of the town of Ashippun, is utilized in the same manner. Rock River passes out of Dodge County in Section 36, town of Lebanon, but returns, as if loath to leave so beautiful a spot, and makes its force felt again (in the town of Emmet) before winding its weary way to the mother stream. The entire area drained by Rock River and its tributaries in Wisconsin is 3,635 square miles. The collection area above Horicon is 436 square miles, upon which the annual rainfall is estimated at 30,387,456,000 cubic feet. Allowing one-half for evaporation, filtration and other sources of loss, the theoretical discharge at the outlet of Horicon marsh would be 15,193,728,000 cubic
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
As a matter of fact, however, the Cole brothers and Mr. Hyland came together to Johnson's Rapids (now Watertown) in December, 1836, and in January following built a log cabin, where they kept what they were pleased to term "bachelor's distress," in that portion of the city of Watertown now embraced in the town of Emmet. Luther Cole and Amasa Hyland engaged their time in clearing a small portion of the joint claim, and preparing the ground for spring seeding, while John W. Cole was " maid of all work," and did the cooking and washing.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
part of the State and in Northern Illinois, where it has its most characteristic development, it is the chief formation that bears the lead ore (galena or galenite). This rock is very impervious to water and atmospheric agencies. About two miles nor'Ji of AVatertown, in the southeast corner of Section 20, town of Emmet, is an extensive quarry of galena limestone. Similar formations, the material being somewhat coarser, appear and are extensively utilized near Juneau, and also at Waupun and near Fox Lake. At the two latter points, it undergoes a marked change in color, and is believed to be more durable than that found further south.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The newspaper business was the beginning of my prosperity, tliough I was somewhat advanced in years when 1 began. During the nine years of my editorial life I also served as Postmaster of Algona three years, and Assessor of Internal Revenue nearly two years. After selling the Upper Des Moines, I embarked in a new enterprise in the adjoining county of Emmet. The venture was nothing less than the founding of a new town, called Swan Lake City, located at the geographical center of Emmet County, with a view to getting the county seat re-located at the new town. It was a bold venture, the county seat having been located for sixteen years at the village of Estherville in the northwest corner of the county. But pluck and untiring perseverance will win. At the October election, 1879, the Board of Supervisors, of which body I have been a member for the past three years, ordered the question
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Emmet. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Emmet.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Emmet had its own post office from 1848 to 1865.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Emmet post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Emmet is more historic than 88% 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.
One place: the Kliese Housebarn (listed 2008).
32% of Emmet’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1983.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
