The Iowa County Historical Society incorporated in 1976 to discover and preserve the history of the people of Iowa County, Wisconsin and maintains many historical archives at the Iowa County Historical Society Museum.

Iowa County Historical Society Contact Information

Our hours are Wednesdays – Fridays from 1pm to 4pm.

The Museum is located at 1301 N Bequette St., Dodgeville, WI Click here for a map
Our Mailing address is P.O. Box 44, Dodgeville, WI 53533
Phone number (608) 935-7694
E-mail:ichistory@mhtc.net

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Iowa County Historical Society Museum

Photo by Neil Giffey

Iowa County Historical Society Services

Iowa County History Facts

   The first white residents were Americans of English, Irish, Scots, and French descent generally hailing from Kentucky, Missouri, or adjacent states. The Panic of 1819 started miners moving up the Mississippi River and the end of the Winnebago war in 1827 was seen as an opportunity for miners to spread into Iowa County. Word 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, and many of the Cornish moved on to the copper mines of Upper Michigan and the gold mines of California. After the Blackhawk Indian War and the Civil War, mining subsided and was replaced by farming and mercantilism.