COLGATE HISTORY
The community first appears on a plat map in 1892 as Colgate
Station as the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Sainte Marie
railroad ( Note: An
1891 Plat of Lisbon identifies the original Wisconsin Central Line
running thru the area called Colgate Station)had been
located through the community. The 1915 plat map also identifies
the community as Colgate Station while in 1929 it is now referred
to just as Colgate.
The book Richfield Remembers The
Past identifies
Colgate was established in 1886. Initially the community had the
usual compliment of businesses: small hotel, general store, four
saloons, a tin shop, a blacksmith shop, a cheese factory, with a
church and school nearby. The cheese factory went out of business
in 1914. In 1916 the community was said to possess a population of
50.
With the passing of the railroad as a primary
means of transportation, the closing of the cheese factory, the
hotel and several saloons burning to the ground, the Community of
Colgate began to fade. Today the community exists only because it
once existed as is the case with many old time hamlets.
As there is a zip code, 53017, assigned to
Colgate, this will keep the community's name alive.
Postcard showing a street scene (horses and buggies) in Colgate,
Wisconsin, postmarked Oct. 2, 1907.
How to find
the cache:
The coordinates
listed on the cache page will take you to a parking spot in
front of one Colgate's remaining pieces of history.
You don't need to
get out of your car since there is no cache right here. Use
your eyes to find the information needed, calculate the new
coordinates and drive there.
1) There is a four
digit number above the front door. Add the sum of those numbers to
the minutes of the following north coordinate:
N43 11.554
+ 00.0XX
2) When was it
established? Sum those four numbers and then add them to the
minutes of the following west coordinate:
W088 12.180 +
00.0XX