Liberty Pole, Wisconsin
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1924 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Franklin town. It lies in ZIP code area 54665. The Survey maps it on the Rising Sun quadrangle. It stands 1,201 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 10 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1924 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1926 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1976 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Rising Sun quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Richland Center quadrangle1:100000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Franklin town. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Early Settlement
To John McCullougli is ascribed the honor of having made the first actual settlement in the town of Franklin. He came in 1844 and afterward entered land and did some breaking. The next spring he brought his family on. His claim was on section 25 of township 12, range west. In 1852 he, with a number of others, went to California, remained a year in the gold region, and wrote to his brother that he was about to return, but he was never afterward heard of, and it is supposed he perished on the plains.
In the county-history sources
7,303 words on this townshipHistory of Vernon County, Wisconsin .., published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Franklin Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
No record having been preserved, nothing certain can be determined upon as to who the first officers were. Those of 188.3 were: Chris EUefson (chairman), Arne Larson,William Clawater, supervisors; Knute Peterson, treasurer; W. W. Johnson, assessor ; Forest F. W. Alexan<Ier, clerk ; O. S. Henry and Sidney Higgins, justices of the peace.
Passage source: History of Vernon County, Wisconsin .., published 1884.
Forest F. W. Alexander is the present town clerk of the town of Franklin. He resides on section 18, town 12, range 4 west. He has fifty acres of land, which he purchased of Harriet Dulap. He was born in Broome Co., N. Y., and came to Wisconsin with his father, who settled at Muscoda, Grant county. The family came to Vernon county in 1869 and settled at Liberty Pole. The father is now deceased. Forest has been generally engaged in clerking. He married Mary Crume, whose father was an e.irly settler of the town of Viroqua. They have three children - Florence M., Grace and Rue E.
Passage source: History of Vernon County, Wisconsin .., published 1884.
In district No. 5 the school house is situated in a beautiful grove, and is finely furnished with the most improved style of seats etc. The scholars are mostly Norwegian, who in winter time, furnish a large attendance and manifest much interest.
Passage source: History of Vernon County, Wisconsin .., published 1884.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Franklin Town - it names this place 24 more 24 times.
Fires near this place
11 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Liberty Pole between 1999 and 2020, burning about 4 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 18180 |
| 12 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 20143 |
| 5 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 19144 |
| 13 May 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 20079 |
| 12 May 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 20073 |
| 26 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 18053 |
| 30 March 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 19063 |
| 30 March 1999 | Other causes | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Liberty Pole: 3 producers, 2 past producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Own Crews | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Brooksville Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Cook Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Ellefson Brothers Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Liberty Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Roaring Forty Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
9 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Liberty Pole in 9 storm reports between 2004 and 2021: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 tornado, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Liberty Pole | $27,000 | A swath of wind damage was found across central Vernon County southwest through south of Viroqua along County Road NN and Getter Road. In this area, approximately 4 miles southwest of Viroqua, a barn was damaged and a roof was taken off a garage. Farther east along Getter Road, a barn was leveled, a small metal shed was destroyed and a field of sunflowers was damaged. The damage was initially believed to be caused by a tornado, but the storm survey did not find sufficient evidence to classify this as a tornado. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Liberty Pole | $15,000 | A tornado touched down about 1 mile south of Liberty Pole, WI in rural Vernon County. This tornado hit a machine shed and tossed machinery into the air in addition to hitting nearby trees. It was rated an EF0. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Liberty Pole | $4,000 | Large trees were blown down south of Viroqua. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Liberty Pole | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Liberty Pole | $1,500 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Liberty Pole | - | A 62 mph wind gust was measured near Liberty Pole with a private weather station. |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Liberty Pole | - | Near Viroqua, 3.7 inches of rain fell. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Liberty Pole | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Liberty Pole | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brookville | 3.4 miles | 14 | |
| Fargo | 3.5 miles | 10 | |
| Viroqua | 4.7 miles | 14 | |
| Folsom | 5.2 miles | 10 | |
| West Prairie | 6.2 miles | 18 | |
| Bud | 6.3 miles | 14 | |
| Springville | 6.7 miles | 14 | |
| Purdy | 7.6 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Liberty Pole | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6541922 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1568017. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








