The story so far
Honey Creek, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Honey Creek yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 733 to 749 (+2%).
Honey Creek Swiss Rural Historic District · Photo: Jeff the quiet · CC0–Not graded
History · Honey Creek
47% of Honey Creek’s homes were built before 1940
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 184 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1901 on, and old-book passages.
3on the National Register
47%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
What stands out about Honey Creek’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A historic districtThe Honey Creek Swiss Rural Historic District takes in 183 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Honey Creek, and 2 old place names are still on the map.Old housesHalf of Honey Creek’s homes were built before 1946.
★ What stands out · On the National Register
3 listings protect 185 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
185
each building in a district counts
first listed
1988
Salem Evangelical Church
BuildingsDistricts
Architectural styles listings
Gothic Revival2
Side Gabled1
Continental House1
Cross-Gabled1
Salem Evangelical ChurchGothic Revival · Built 1874
Our Lady of Loretto Roman Catholic Church and CemeteryGothic Revival · Built 1880
Honey Creek Swiss Rural Historic DistrictSide Gabled
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Help out
Start Honey Creek’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Honey Creek’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Leland
Denzer
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DenzerLeland
Gone or out of use
Free Thinkers HallchurchHoney Creek Ridge Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Honey Creek
Freethinkers
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the old history books
What they wrote about Honey Creek in 1880
Passages that mention Honey Creek, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources ... biographical sketches ..1880 · page 341Read the page →
Read the text
In January, 1857, Town 13, Range 2, was set off from the town of Marston, the new town being called Woodland. In December of the same year, the town of Troy was organized out of the towns of Honey Creek and Spring Green. The organization of the town of Excelsior bears the same date, it having been formed out of the towns of Dellona and Freedom. The territory of the town of Freedom was further abridged, about this time, by Sections 19, 20. 2'.', 30, 31 and 32 being attached to the town of Baraboo.
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
Honey Creek, 1874 to 1907
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1874BuiltSalem Evangelical Church is built
- 1880BuiltOur Lady of Loretto Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery is built
- 1883Post officeThe Leland post office opens
- 1889Post officeThe Denzer post office opens
- 20th century
- 1901
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 1906Post officeThe Denzer post office closes
- 1907Post officeThe Leland post office closes
By decade
Honey Creek, decade by decade
Date unknown1 to date
Date?
2016On the map
Honey Creek on the map, 1901 to 1958
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Honey Creek. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1901Denzer sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Honey Creek.
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.
Retake this viewJames Frazer House
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Honey Creek’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Honey Creek
Nobody well known was born in Honey Creek itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
A
Alexander WetmoreAmerican ornithologist and avian paleontologist · b. 1886
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Honey Creek’s history
What is on the National Register in Honey Creek?
Three places: the Salem Evangelical Church (listed 1988), the Our Lady of Loretto Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery (1990) and the Honey Creek Swiss Rural Historic District (1990).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.