The Clark County courthouse on April 17, 2017
Clark County was created in 1853 from La Crosse County, but it wasn’t organized until 1857. It is very unclear who the county is named for. Some sources indicate that it as named for George Rogers Clark, who was general in the Revolutionary War. Other sources claim that it was named for explorer William Clark who was the co-leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition that explored the Louisiana Purchase from 1803 to 1806. And I did find one source that claims it was named for A. W. Clark who was an early settler.
Neillsville is the Clark County seat. Neillsville dates back to about 1845 when James O’Neill and his party settled in the area. They were looking for a location to build a sawmill along the Black River. The settlement was originally called O’Neill’s Mill and became the county seat in 1854. It was platted in 1855 and was incorporated as a city in 1882. Somewhere along the way, the name of the town became Neillsville.
The Clark County courthouse is located at 517 Court Street in Neillsville. I visited Neillsville on Monday April 17, 2017. There had been some intermittent rain on my way to the city, but it had stopped by the time I made it to the courthouse. Neillsville is a pretty small city, so it was easy to park downtown and then walk to the courthouse, the old jail and down to O’Neill’s Creek. The Clark County courthouse is a fairly new structure and it is built into the hillside overlooking O’Neill’s Creek. Just to the east of the courthouse is the old jail which was built in 1897 and is now a museum. The new jail is in the part of the courthouse that is just down the hill from the old jail. The old jail and the Neillsville Post Office (built in 1937) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After touring Neillsville I drove a few miles west along US Highway 10 to The Highground Veterans Memorial Park. This started in the 1980s as a Vietnam Veterans memorial, but has broadened its mission over the years. I spent about an hour there walking around and seeing the different monuments and memorials. It’s a very beautiful site and very moving as well. It was a little early in the season so a lot of the landscaping plants were still covered, but I was glad that I had the chance to stop and see it.
I do not have a lot of memories of Clark County. I did drive through it on Highway 10 going from Appleton to Eau Claire on a fairly regular basis in the 1980s and 1990s. So I had passed through part of Neillsville on each of these trips, but the only thing I really remember was driving by the hill where The Highground Memorial was taking shape.