General Info
Vilas County was set off from Oneida County in 1893 by William Freeman Vilas. He was one of many people coming from New England as part of a wave of “Yankee” migrants who helped to found the state, and he served as senator from 1891 from 1897. The earliest people in the county were members of the Chippewa band of Native Americans, though migrants had constructed wagon roads and trails, as well as a logging industry in the area in the 1850s. The population is over 21,000 and the county seat is Eagle River.
