Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 45% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1963 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 45% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Lake’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.
Founding year: our sources. 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 Lake’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lake yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Lake is a town in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 1,186. The unincorporated community of Loomis is located in the town,
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,135 to 1,186 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Lake, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The site of Madison is a i undulating isthmus between Lake Mendota (Fourth Lake) on the northwest, and Lake Monona (Third Lake) on the southeast. These lakes are 788 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and 210 feet above Lake Michigan.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Township of Dunn is situated in the southeast quarter of the county, and is township 6 north, range 10 east. Lake Waubesa, or Second Lake, covers portions of sections 4, 5, 8 and 9, on the northwest part; Lake Kegonsa, or First Lake, on the eastern side, also takes a portion of sections 13, 23, all of 24, 25 and 26 ; Hook Lake, in the southwest part, on sections 28, 29 and 32; Mud Lake on section 10.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
lield to decide the question of issuing bonds in favor of the Chicago, Lake Geneva & Pacific Railroad Company, a company organized to build a railroad through here, connecting at both ends with the Wisconsin Central railroad. At that election a majority of votes was cast in favor of issuing bonds to the amount of $20,000, one of the conditions being that the road should be completed by the first of January 1892, but the bonds were never issued nor was the condition performed.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
near Elkhorn, one near L. Jackson’s in the north part of the town, and the bridge near the foot of Broad Street and two on Main Street in the village. At the session of the Legislature this year, a special charter was secured for Lake Geneva Seminary. Our people were also more fortunate in respect to railroad legislation, and succeeded in obtaining a charter which they could themselves control, authorizing them to construct a road from the state line, at the village of Bloomfield, (now Genoa
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lake. 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 Lake.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Lake’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Lake itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Loomis, opened and closed inside today’s town.
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.
Lake is more historic than 45% 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.
19% of Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 the Library of Congress (4), 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.
1898
