The Hale post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Elk Creek (1867), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,061157 years
How historic is Hale?
B−
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Hale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Hale’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hale is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hale’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 Hale’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 B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.6 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 Hale’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 Hale yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hale is a town in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,061 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Elk Creek, Hale, and Pleasantville are located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1869. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,037 to 1,061 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hale in 1917
Passages that mention Hale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin1917 · page 92Read the page →
Read the text
Hale. The first settler in Pleasant valley above Burnside was George Hale, the pioneer of the township that now bears his name. He came in 1858 and settled nine miles up Elk Creek. Other early families in Hale were: Allen, Barry, Bruce, Christianson, Donley, ElUs, Heath, Mallery, Maloney, Lockman, Michaels, McFarlin, Olson, Scott, Spaulding, Lally, Smith, Stewart, Tull, Teller, Tallman, Van Tassel and Weeks.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin1917 · page 144Read the page →
Read the text
Another Irish settler in the town of Hale is Honorable M. J. Warner, who moved to Hale in 1861 and took up a homestead of one hundred sixty acres in Section 33, Township 23, Range 8 West, where he still resides. He was born in Ireland, February 15th, 1842, emigrated with his mother to Massachusetts in 1854, moved with his brother Robert and mother to Adams County. Wisconsin, in 1856, enlisted as a member of Co. K, 25th Wisconsin Infantry at Friendship, Adams County, August 15th, 1862, and was discharged in September, 1863, on account of disabilities con-
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
Hale, 1867 to 1926
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Hale had its own post office from 1869 to 1904. Another post office, Elk Creek, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Elk Creek
1867–1906
Hale
1869–1904
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Elk CreekPleasantville
Gone or out of use
Bruce Valley SchoolschoolCaswell SchoolschoolEimon SchoolschoolElk Creek SchoolschoolHuskelhus SchoolschoolNorth Branch SchoolschoolPike SchoolschoolPleasantville SchoolschoolRoskos SchoolschoolWagner Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Hale
LewisWagner
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Hale post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hale rank for history?
Hale is more historic than 51% 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 Hale?
34% of Hale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1975.
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, 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.
