Chetek, Wisconsin - A Brief History
Chetek Street, 1905 ca.
View down a street in Chetek. View the original source document: WHI 29848
Chetek is located 35 miles north of Eau Claire in Barron County. The name Chetek comes from the Ojibwe word for pelican. Before white settlement, the area was populated by Ojibwe and Sioux Indians.
Joe Trepannier opened a trading post in Chetek in 1836, but the first permanent white settler, William Carey, didn’t arrive until 1866. The Omaha Railroad began service to Chetek in 1872, followed soon after by the establishment of the Knapp, Stout & Co. logging camp. A large sawmill was erected in 1881.
In 1875, land owned by Knapp, Stout & Co. was platted. At the time, Chetek had a blacksmith shop, a butcher, a general store, and a harness shop, businesses that helped support the area’s logging industry. The local newspaper, the "Chetek Alert," began publishing in 1882 and still serves the area today.
Notable Chetek residents include Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.
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Source: WHS Library-Archives Staff, 2009