Richland Center, Wisconsin

Richland Center is a city in Richland County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the  county seat of Richland County. As of the 2020 census, 5,114 people lived there.

History
Richland Center was founded in 1851 by Ira Sherwin Hazeltine. Haseltine offered to give land to the county if Richland Center was voted the county seat.Butterfield, C. W. (1884). History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin. Springfield, Illinois: Union Publishing Company. pp. 1150-1151. In 1852, the Wisconsin Legislature named Richland Center as the seat for Richland County."An Act to Declare the County Seat of Richland County," Wisconsin Statutes 1852, c. 37. The Richland County courthouse was built in 1889.

In 1876, a railroad branch opened to connect Richland Center with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Lone Rock, Wisconsin. This gave an outlet for the town's commerce.  On October 8, 1882, the town's railway depot was destroyed when a fire lit two kegs of gunpowder inside it. This caused an explosion that tore the roof from the building.Butterfield (1884). p. 1164 Another depot was built in 1909. Today, it is a visitor center for the community."Richland Center Visitor Center ." Richland Chamber & Development Alliance. Retrieved 2011-11-03.

Frank Lloyd Wright was born at Richland Center in 1867.

Geography
The city has a total area of . Of this,  is land and  is water.

Notable people
 Svetlana Alliluyeva, only daughter of Joseph Stalin
 Lynda Barry, cartoonist
 Bradie Ewing, NFL Football player
 Joshua L. Johns, U.S. Representative
 Gilbert L. Laws, U.S. Representative
 Vernon Wallace Thomson, Governor of Wisconsin
 Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
 Raymond Leo Burke, cardinal

References

Other websites
 City of Richland Center
 Richland Center Chamber of Commerce
 University of Wisconsin - Richland 
 Brewer Public Library 
 Richland Electric Cooperative

Category:Cities in Wisconsin
Category:Richland County, Wisconsin
Category:County seats in Wisconsin
Category:1851 establishments in Wisconsin