The Willow Springs post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Calamine (1857), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 632 in 20002020 census: 789189 years
Founding year: the first Willow Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Willow Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Willow Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1902Mineral Point sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Willow Springs.
Timeline
Willow Springs, 1834 to 1957
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Willow Springs yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Willow Springs is a town in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 789 at the 2020 census, up from 758 at the 2010 census. The unincorporated community of Calamine is located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1837. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 758 to 789 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Willow Springs in 1881
Passages that mention Willow Springs, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Lafayette county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources1881 · page 547Read the page →
Read the text
Township 2, Range 2, and fifty-six sections in Townships 2 and 3, of Ranges 3 and 4 ; ten sections on the north being the south part of Township 3, and the remainder being the north part of Township 2, Previous to that time, a large portion of the above territory was connected with the precinct of Willow Springs for the purposes of voting. In 1850, two tiers of sections were set off from the east end of the town, and added to the town of Wiota, and, in 1869, when the town of Seymour was formed, the east half of Township 2, Range 3, was assigned to that territory. This town was then left, as it now appears, nearly square, and including in all nearly fortyeight sections. The town was first called Center, which name it received on account of its occupying
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Lafayette county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources1881 · page 465Read the page →
Read the text
for their families. Soon after it began operations, the Curtis mill at or near the present village of Gratiot, on the Mineral Point Railroad, ofi'ered inducements to patrons, and disputed for precedence with the Murphy mill until along about 1833, when Rufus and Benjamin Scott settled on Otter Creek, in Willow Springs Township, and erected what have since been known as the McGuire Mills, which were operated under various ownerships until 1872, when they were abandoned. The mill buildings still stand in sight of the road from Darlington to the residence of Peter Parkinson, Jr., monuments to the enterprise of that early day, but decayed and falling to pieces.
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.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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 Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 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.
