Sawyer County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 18,074. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Hayward. The county partly overlaps with the reservation of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. The county is considered a high-recreation retirement destination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

History

The area that is now Sawyer County was contested between the Dakota and

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

peoples in the 18th century. Oral histories tell that the Ojibwes defeated the Dakotas locally in the Battle of the Horse Fly on the Upper Chippewa River in the 1790s. By this time, Lac Courte Oreilles had become the site of an Ojibwe village. Ojibwes allowed trader Michel Cadotte to build a fur-trading outpost in the area in 1800. The United States acquired the region from the Ojibwe Nation in the 1837 Treaty of St. Peters, but the Ojibwes retained the right to hunt and fish on treaty territory. Ojibwe people successfully negotiated to establish the permanent Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe. The county is named for Philetus Sawyer, a

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

man who represented

in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in the 19th century. Logging began in the late 1850s. Loggers came from Cortland County, New York, Carroll County, New Hampshire, Orange County, Vermont, and Down East

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

in what is now

Washington County, Maine Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of the 2020 census, its population was 31,095, making it the third-least populous county in Maine. Its county seat is Machias. The county was established on June 25, 1789. ...

and

Hancock County, Maine Hancock County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 55,478. Its county seat is Ellsworth, Maine, Ellsworth. The county was incorporated ...

. These were "

Yankee The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Their various meanings depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, the Northeastern United Stat ...

" migrants, that is to say they were descended from the English

Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

who had settled New England during the 1600s. They were mostly members of the

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

. Sawyer County was created in 1883 and organized in 1885. In the 1890s immigrants came from a variety of countries such as Germany, Norway, Poland, Ireland and Sweden.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the county has a total area of , of which (6.9%) are covered by water. It is the fifth-largest county in Wisconsin by land area.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 63 * Highway 27 (Wisconsin) * Highway 40 (Wisconsin) * Highway 48 (Wisconsin) * Highway 70 (Wisconsin) *

Highway 77 (Wisconsin) State Trunk Highway 77 (often called Highway 77, STH-77 or WIS 77) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs east–west in northwest Wisconsin from the Minnesota border near Danbury to just west of the Michigan border in ...

* Sawyer County Highway B is the busiest rural roadway on average in all of Sawyer County with a high count of 5900 vehicles daily, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's average daily traffic maps for 2008.

Railroads

* Canadian National * Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad

Buses

Airport

Sawyer County Airport (KHYR) serves the county and surrounding communities.

Adjacent counties

Bayfield County Bayfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, its population is 16,220. Its county seat is Washburn. The county was created in 1845 and organized in 1850. The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chipp ...

- north * Ashland County - northeast * Price County - east * Rusk County - south * Barron County - southwest * Washburn County - west * Douglas County - northwest

National protected areas

* Chequamegon National Forest (part) *

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway The Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway is a federally protected system of riverways located in eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. It protects of river, including the St. Croix River (on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border), and the ...

(part)

Demographics

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, the population was 18,074. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 15,966 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 77.0% White, 16.3% Native American, 0.6% African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.6% from other races, and 5.2% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.0% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, 16,196 people, 6,640 households, and 4,581 families resided in the county. The

was . The 13,722 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 81.72% White, 0.31% African American, 16.07% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 1.23% from two or more races. About 0.90% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. About 29.6% were of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, 7.8% Irish, 6.7% Norwegian, 5.9% Polish, 5.2% Swedish, and 5.2% English ancestry; 95.4% spoke English, 2.0%

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

and 1.1%

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

as their first language. Of the 6,640 households, 27.5% had children under 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were not families. About 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.39, and the average family size was 2.86. In the county, the age distribution was 24.1% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 27.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.8 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 101.0 males. In 2017, 167 births occurred, with a general fertility rate of 74.5 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the eighth-highest rate out of all 72 Wisconsin counties. Additionally, fewer than five induced abortions were reported as performed on women of Sawyer County residence in 2017.

Communities

City

* Hayward (county seat)

Villages

* Couderay * Exeland * Radisson *

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

Towns

* Bass Lake * Couderay *

Draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

* Edgewater * Hayward *

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

* Lenroot * Meadowbrook *

Meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

* Radisson * Round Lake * Sand Lake * Spider Lake * Weirgor *

Census-designated places

* Chief Lake * Little Round Lake * New Post * Reserve * Stone Lake (partial)

Unincorporated communities

* Edgewater * Hauer * Hay Stack Corner * Lemington * Loretta *

* Northwoods Beach *

* Oxbo * Phipps * Seeley * Weirgor * Wooddale * Yarnell

Politics

Sawyer County had a historical reputation for being a bellwether county in presidential elections, having voted for the overall national winner in every election from 1964 to 2016. Similar to other bellwether counties, this streak was broken in 2020 when the county backed

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

over eventual winner

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

. This is because of increasing geographic polarization in American politics, with fewer and fewer counties swinging between parties, and instead voting consistently for one party according to demographics.

References

External links

Sawyer County government website

Sawyer County map
from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation {{authority control 1885 establishments in Wisconsin Populated places established in 1885