Imagine yourself standing here in 1915. Looking west, the road into Boyceville came straight across the field. Looking to the north lead to the northern route to Wheeler, but if you looked straight south, all you would have seen is the forest. The southern route to Wheeler went around this grove of trees. Considering that all the trees had been logged off between 1870 and 1900, that crooked path must have been a very early route!
Part of the Boyceville-Wheeler “Old Roads” series.
Old maps can be fascinating! Our family has a battered 1915 plat book for Dunn County that has probably been in the family since it was new. You might think that our current roads more or less follow along the routes laid out by the pioneers – until you really look at an old map! In the map montage shown here, you won’t find State Highway 170 at all – the idea of a state highway did not even exist until 1917 when Wisconsin enacted the first numbered highway system in the world. Highway 170 was not extended west of Wheeler until 1947! Maybe there were too many marshes to cross? Instead, there were two routes, only one of which survives today.
As you work your way along this series of mostly easy park and grabs, take a moment to look around and compare today’s view to the 1915 map. Some roads from 1915 vanished seemingly without a trace, unless you are an archeologist.