The Menominee County courthouse on September 11, 2017
Menominee County is the 72nd and final county of Wisconsin.The state legislature began the process of creating Menominee County in 1959, in anticipation of the termination of the Menominee Indian Reservation in 1961. The new county was created from Oconto and Shawano counties.Reservation status was restored in 1973 and is more or less coextensive with the county.
The county is named for the Menominee tribe of Native Americans, as you might have guessed.
The county seat is Keshena. Keshena was named for a Menominee chief. It is not really a town, city or village, it is a “census designated place” which sounds appropriately vague. Menominee County has only one town, the town of Menominee which consists of the entire county. The town and county governments are consolidated.
The Menominee County courthouse is located at W3269 Courthouse Lane in Keshena. I stopped by on Monday September 11, 2017 on my way home from riding in the Door County Century bike ride. I stopped first in Shawano County and then drove a few minutes north to Keshena to see the Menominee County courthouse. It was interesting driving into Keshena – there really is no town center, because of course there is no town. But I did pass the high school and the casino before I came to the government area. The courthouse is very unusual in terms of it’s architecture. It looks more like a cottage or a resort than a courthouse. It blends in very naturally with the surrounding woods. Nearby is the tribal law enforcement center. The tribal government has its own courts and police force. I am not at all clear what the relationship is between the county government and the tribal government.
After taking some photos I drove out of the county heading towards Wausau. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn in some areas and it was quite a beautiful drive. In Neopit I saw the Menominee middle school and also the Menominee Tribal Enterprises sawmill. One thing I noticed in Menominee County is that the forests seem to be in much better shape than in the surrounding counties. This was very noticeable as the highway crossed the county line in several places.
I haven’t really spent a lot of time in Menominee County but I did visit the county and the surrounding area when I was younger. During the late 1960s and early 1970s I spent a week or so every summer at Gardner Dam Boy Scout Camp. The camp itself was located in Langlade County, but it was very close to Menominee County and we drove through Menominee County to get there. Also in the 1970s some family friends bought a cottage in the Legend Lake area of Menominee County. This was a fairly large recreational development within the county, and it’s one of the few areas of the county where people who are not members of the Menominee Nation can own land. I stayed at the cottage a number of times with my family or with friends. I drove a car for the first time near the cottage back in 1972. The last time I remember visiting the cottage was in 1975 before I went to college.