Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Daniela Kloth · CC BY-SA 2.5Its Register listing is the Fugina House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1887 on, and the census since 1870.
The Fountain City post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Fountain City’s history is told.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1887Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Fountain City.
Fountain City was originally called Holmes' Landing, after Thomas A. Holmes, who settled there in 1839. Boats would stop at the landing to take on firewood, as well as water from springs not far from the river, leading to the name of Fountain City.
Fountain City was near the crash site of Northwest Airlines Flight 421.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Fountain City, cut from the printed page as they were published.
bled the town so much more. There was, then, nothing else left but what was done. The subsequent establishment of the Town of Milton out of part of the former Town of Eagle Mills by the legislature in the act of incorporating the Village of Fountain City does not prove anything against the reasons alleged above, especially as most of the parts assigned to the Town of Waumandee were left in, and still constitute part of, that town, relieving the Town of Milton of the care of the most expensive roads.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Even from the town of Arcadia I remember to have seen farmers, who brought wheat and other products to Fountain City to market. The construction of that road and the inevitable boom of the new stations of Arcadia and Independence diverted much of the Montana, some of the Waumandee and all of the Glencoe trade in that direction at least for some time. The Burlington and Northern railroad put the place like Alma, on a new footing. The results of it can not yet be positively stated. But so far the people have
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveFountain City, Buffalo County, Wisconsin
Born hereFred Carisch is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGreat River Road - Downtown Fountain City2 decades in the archive, from the 1810s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fountain City. 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 Fountain City.
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.
Between 806 and 1,031 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fountain City’s Wikipedia page.
Fountain City’s post office has been open since 1854.
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 Fountain City post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Fugina House (listed 1979).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (11), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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