The Town of Grand Rapids is located in Wood County,

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 ...

, United States. The population was 7,801 at the 2000 census. The census-designated place of Lake Wazeecha is located in the town. The unincorporated community of

Kellner Kellner is a German surname literally meaning "waiter". Notable people with the surname include: * Ádám Kellner (born 1986), Hungarian tennis player * Alex Kellner (1924–1996), baseball pitcher * Alexander Kellner (born 1961), Brazilian paleon ...

is located also partially in the town.

Geography

According to the

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

, the town has a total area of 21 square miles (54.4 km²), of which, 20.8 square miles (53.8 km²) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²) (1%) is water.

History

Grand Rapids takes its name from a series of rapids on the Wisconsin River. The west and north part of what is now Grand Rapids, within three miles of the

Wisconsin River The Wisconsin River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, at approximately 430 miles (692 km) long. As a tributary of the Mississippi River, it is part of the Mississippi River System. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 b ...

, was in the "Indian strip," sold by the

Menominee The Menominee ( ; meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recognized tribe of Na ...

to the United States government in the 1836

Treaty of the Cedars The Treaty of the Cedars was an 1836 agreement between the Menominee Indian nation and the United States in which the Menominee ceded to the United States about of land for $700,000. The agreement opened that huge tract of forest to logging and Wh ...

. As such, it was logged and surveyed early. In the spring of 1840, a crew working for the U.S. government surveyed the section corners of the west and north parts, walking through the woods and crossing the river, measuring with

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

and

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

. When done, they produced this first description of the area:

''There is hardly any good land in this Township. A succession of Rapids & rocky chutes called the Grand Rapids have two Extensive lumbering Establishments thereon(?) owned by Bloomer Chambalain(?) Adams Strong Hill & others, now in operation - the Hydraulic Power is capable of being increased. Several large Pine Groves are found in this Township.''

In 1851 a different crew surveyed the section corners of the entire town, producing this general description:

''The character of the land varies very considerably in this Town but none of it can rank above thirdrate. The Southern Portion consists of
pine barrens Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pineland areas occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Perhaps the most well known pine-barre ...
, the timber mostly gone & grown up in Blk
Oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
bushes(?). The timber is principally pine of the variety known as Pitch, Bastard or Blk Pine, of very little use either for fuel or lumber. The north part of the Town is principally Marsh very wet & entirely unfit for cultivation. Large portions of the marshes are covered with
Cranberry Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not th ...
vines which every alternate year produce large crops.''

Demographics

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, there were 7,801 people, 2,788 households, and 2,314 families residing in the town. 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 375.5 people per square mile (144.9/km²). There were 2,854 housing units at an average density of 137.4 per square mile (53/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.81%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.24%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.51% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.04%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.14% from other races, and 0.49% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino people of any race were 0.81% of the population. There were 2,788 households, out of which 41.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 75.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17% were non-families. 13.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.79 and the average family size was 3.08. In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.6% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.3 males. The median income for a household in the town was $62,515, and the median income for a family was $66,423. Males had a median income of $46,759 versus $27,364 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $25,331. About 1.8% of families and 2.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* D. D. Conway, lawyer and politician, lived and worked in the town of Grand Rapids * Eliphalet S. Miner, judge and politician, was postmaster of the town * Levi P. Powers, judge and politician, lived in the town'History of Wood County,' George O. Jones, H.C. Cooper Company & Cooper, 1923, Biographical Sketch of Levi P. Powers, pg. 339 * Marlin D. Schneider, Democratic politician and teacher, longest serving member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, 1971–2011

References

External links