BlockPost Lake, Wisconsin
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Elcho town. It lies in ZIP code area 54428. It stands on Mud Creek. The Survey maps it on the Post Lake quadrangle. 343 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,532 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPost Lake fell from 374 to 343 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 374 | |
| 2020 | 343 | -31 (-8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1942 USGS Elcho quadrangle1:48000
- 1950 USGS Elcho quadrangle1:48000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Iron Mountain quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Iron Mountain quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1973 USGS Post Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Merrill quadrangle1:100000
In the county-history sources
2,730 words on this townshipHistory of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. Government Survey to Present Time, with Biographical Sketches, published 1922 names this settlement in its chapter on Elcho Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
East Elcho township has but few swamps, those found being very small in area. The timber west of Post Lake and the Wolf river originally was very heavy and extensive tracts of the best quality of white pine were cut years ago. The soil of this township is good and well adapted to agricultural purposes. Gloucester sandy loam is found in sections 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 17, 21 and 22. Plainfield sand is found in an extensive area in sections 11, 12, 13 and 14. Gloucester fine sandy loam is found in sections 1, 2, 4, 5, 17, 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 34 and 35, while Gloucester sand is the principal soil in sections 3, 9, 10, 14, 15, 23, 24, 25 and 26. Sections 6, 7, 8, 22, 25, 26, 32, 33, 35 and 36, all contain some Gloucester silt loam. Peat is found in sections 5, 6, 8, 9, 16, 22, 25, 26, 29, 32 and 33. Post Lake, Loon Lake, Mud Lake, and Bass Lake are the principal bodies of water. The Hunting and Wolf rivers both run through sections in the township. The Hunting river flows through sections 19, 30, 31, 32 and 33 and the Wolf river through sections 11, 13, 14, 24 and 25.
Passage source: History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. Government Survey to Present Time, with Biographical Sketches, published 1922.
District No. 2 is subdivided into three divisions with schools at Post Lake, the Sunset subdistrict and the Kosciousko (Polish) settlement. The Post Lake region is the most densely settled and the oldest in point of habitation by white settlers. Sunset subdistrict is situated nearer to the village of Elcho than the other two. It is well settled. The Kosciousko district has been settled since 1897.
Passage source: History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. Government Survey to Present Time, with Biographical Sketches, published 1922.
Post Lake is one of the most picturesque places in Wisconsin. The beautiful lake, stretching north into Oneida County from the center of section 23 of East Elcho township, affords excellent boating and fishing for the sportsman and tourist. Its shore line is dotted with the cottages of men and women, who, tired of the constant and incessant grind of the commercial whirl, come here in "The Heart of the Whispering Pines" to hold communion, so to speak, with God and His handicraft. The Narrows are bridged at section 11 by one of the best iron bridges in the county.
Passage source: History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, from U. S. Government Survey to Present Time, with Biographical Sketches, published 1922.
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 Elcho Town - it names this place 6 more 6 times.
Fires near this place
73 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of Post Lake between 1992 and 2020, burning about 41 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 12 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 24 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Fireworks | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.2 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 September 1998 | Smoking | 5.6 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 August 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 August 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 August 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | PILE |
| 5 July 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.7 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | JACK PINE LANE |
| 5 July 2002 | Fireworks | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | BUCKET BRIGADE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Post Lake: 7 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Road Gravel Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | ||
| Clear Lake Road Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Hunting River Road Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Lower Post Lake Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Otter Lake Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Pollock Creek Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Wolf River Gravel Pit #1 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Wooduck Springs Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
1 since 2021Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Post Lake in 1 storm report in 2021: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Post Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees and a power line near Post Lake. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
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.
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 Post Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7233656 | 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 1571820. 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.