Visit the Museum!

The Museum on a bright sunny day with fresh cut lawn in front, trees behind the small building with columns.The Iowa County Historical Society was incorporated in 1976 to discover and preserve the history of Iowa County, Wisconsin. We maintain a wide variety of archival items including:

 

Visitors are welcome! Our hours are Wednesday through Friday, 1 pm to 4 pm. Inclement weather affects our hours: If public schools close, we close. The Museum is located at 1301 N. Bequette St., Dodgeville, WI. Our Mailing address is P.O. Box 44, Dodgeville, WI 53533; Phone number (608) 935-7694; Email: ichistory@mhtc.net

Iowa County History Facts

vintage image, possibly color tinted, of an old home in the background and a fence in the foreground.

Stringtown mining settlement near Rewey.

The first white residents were of English, Irish, Scots, and French descent from Kentucky, Missouri, or adjacent states. The Panic of 1819 started miners moving up the Mississippi River. The end of the Winnebago war in 1827, was seen as an opportunity for miners to spread into Iowa County. Word quickly spread that lead deposits so abundant in this area that ore lay on top of the ground!

In 1827, Henry Dodge, his family, and about 40 miners set up camp in the vicinity. Within a short time, about 100 miners were working claims on the ridges of Dodgeville. By 1829, more than 4,000 miners worked in southwestern Wisconsin, producing 13 million pounds of lead a year. By the mid-1830s, news of the “lead rush” in the Upper Mississippi Valley had reached England; and a steady stream of skilled, hard-rock miners from Cornwall and Wales had begun.

Lead mining in the area went into decline during the 1850s. Many of the Cornish moved on to the copper mines of Upper Michigan, the silver mines of Colorado, and the gold mines of California. Mining was replaced by farming and mercantilism.