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History · Forestville

Forestville’s post office opened in 1863, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1960 on, and the census since 1970.

1863first post office
0on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Forestville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Forestville began

When was Forestville founded?

1863

The Forestville post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 349 in 19702020 census: 482163 years
Founding year: the first Forestville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Forestville’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 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Forestville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewAhnapee and Western through: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Forestville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Forestville.

Read it all →

Major Joseph McCormick was the first white man to settle in Forestville. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. He won his military title in the Mexican War. He discovered what he thought was a layer

of marble. McCormick is responsible for bringing a great many settlers to Forestville. He spoke persuasively of the marble quarries, the water power, and the timber resources.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Forestville in 1881

Passages that mention Forestville, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The early settlers of Forestville made their way to that vicinity by navigating the Ahnapee River, which stream runs through a portion of that town. The Ahnapee is still navigated to considerable extent up as far as Van Norstrand's saw mill, town of Forestville. J. Fetzer & Co. own, and keep busy a…
History of Door county, Wisconsin, together with biographies of nearly seven hundred families, and mention of 4,000 persons ..1881 · page 46Read the page →
Read the text

The early settlers of Forestville made their way to that vicinity by navigating the Ahnapee River, which stream runs through a portion of that town. The Ahnapee is still navigated to considerable extent up as far as Van Norstrand's saw mill, town of Forestville. J. Fetzer & Co. own, and keep busy a light-draught steamer and two barges, which freight forest products down the river. Public highways, kept in excellent traveling condition, to and from Green Bay, Ahnapee, and all

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
3 and 4, and Hat Island, and all the tiers of townships extendiag north of the town line of Otumba, except Washington Island, be organized into one township under the name of Gibraltar. Forestville was also set off at this meeting, embracing also the territory now included in the town of Clay Banks…
History of Door county, Wisconsin, together with biographies of nearly seven hundred families, and mention of 4,000 persons ..1881 · page 18Read the page →
Read the text

3 and 4, and Hat Island, and all the tiers of townships extendiag north of the town line of Otumba, except Washington Island, be organized into one township under the name of Gibraltar. Forestville was also set off at this meeting, embracing also the territory now included in the town of Clay Banks; all the rest of the county being included in the town Otumba.

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.

Timeline

Forestville, 1863 to 1960

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863Post officeThe Forestville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1909In the archiveAhnapee and Western through
  5. 1910In the archiveLooking west in Maplewood Wisconsin
  6. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Forestville, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s3 items
Ahnapee and Western through1909Ahnapee and Western throughLooking west in Maplewood Wisconsin1910Looking west in Maplewood WisconsinLooking east in Maplewood Wisconsin1913Looking east in Maplewood Wisconsin
1920s–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
Today9 recent
Aerial view of far southwestern town of Forestville, part of southern Clay Banks, and part of the northern town of Ahna…2020Aerial view of far southwestern town of Forestville, …Aerial view of Kolberg in the eastern town of Brussels and the upper Forestville Millpond in the western town of Forest…2020Aerial view of Kolberg in the eastern town of Brussel…Aerial view of Carnot and Vignes in the towns of Forestville and Clay Banks in Door County, Wisconsin 20202020Aerial view of Carnot and Vignes in the towns of Fore…Aerial view of Carnot and Stony Creek in southeastern town of Forestville, Door County, Wisconsin 2020 (cropped)2020Aerial view of Carnot and Stony Creek in southeastern…Southern Door fire department at2014Southern Door fire department atForestville Wisconsin town hall2014Forestville Wisconsin town hallForestville Wisconsin post office2014Forestville Wisconsin post officeForestvilleWisconsinSignWIS422010ForestvilleWisconsinSignWIS42ForestvilleWisconsinNorthWIS422010ForestvilleWisconsinNorthWIS42
On the map

Forestville on the map, 1960 to 1982

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

Forestville on the 1960 USGS mapForestville on the 1982 USGS map1960Algoma 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 Forestville.

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.

Ahnapee and Western through
Retake this viewAhnapee and Western through, 1909

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Forestville, census by census

0100200300400500198020002020Peak: 482

Between 349 and 482 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Forestville’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Forestville

Nobody well known was born in Forestville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Zack SnyderAmerican filmmaker · b. 1966
Tony ShalhoubAmerican actor · b. 1953
Kevin MacLeodAmerican composer and music producer · b. 1972
Jay DeMeritAmerican soccer player · b. 1979
Mona SimpsonAmerican novelist · b. 1957
D
David Lee McInnisAmerican actor · b. 1973

Questions about Forestville’s history

What year was Forestville founded?

The Forestville post office opened in 1863, 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 (12), Wikipedia, 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.