Built in 1900 (Queen Anne style). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
From the record
“The lodge remained at Orion and prospered, but was transferred to Muscoda March 20, 1875, when the name of the lodge was changed to Muscoda Lodge, No. 70. Cottrill, Grand Master of Wisconsin, April 6, 1875.”
History of Grant County, Wisconsin (1881). Machine-read text.
One of 36 National Register listings published here for Grant County · listed in 1994 · category: Building · built in 1900, Queen Anne style.
National Register reference number.94001157- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Muscoda village. The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
There is a tradition that some English immigrants settled on the site of this village at a very early day and were massacred by the In¬ dians. Nothing definite is known about it, but on the strength of the tradition the place was called English Prairie until about 1840. The present name was evidently taken from Longfellow's Hiawatha in which is mentioned 44 the muscoda, the meadow." The place was also called Savannah.
The chapter on Muscoda Village in History of Grant County, Wisconsin, published 1881 names Muscoda. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The town of Muscoda, occupying the extreme northeast corner of the county, claims a priority in history which is ante-dated by but few of the corporate divisions of the county. Tradition hath it that the feet of the first explorers, who, with dauntless hearts, penetrated the mysterious wilderness, and with unswerving faith pushed the sharp prow of their birch canoe through the lapping waters of the beautiful " Ouisconsin," that the feet of these explorers pressed the soil of the present town at a date cotemporaneous with their first appearance in search of the great river of which such wonderful tales had been told them by the dusky aborigines. Yet all this is mere tradition. The probabilities are that the excellent landing-place afibrded at this point might have attracted the attention of Marquette, Joliet, or, later on, Hennepin ; but there is nothing in the writings of these explorers or their biographers that places the fact even within the widest boundary of certainty.
The first authentic knowledge possessed of any actual residents at this point gives this honor to parties by the name of Armstrong, who had a trading-post here, probably at a date immediately succeeding the Black Hawk war. But it is not until 1835 that the present town of Muscoda begins to take form and substance. During this year, Col. William S. Hamilton came in and erected a diamond blast furnace near what is now the intersection of Main and Seventh streets. The excellent landing-place and favorable facilities afforded for shipment appear to have induced this movement on the part of the Colonel. It did not, however, prove to be a paying investment, and was subsequently abandoned. The chimneys of the old furnace were standing so late as 1847, and the antiquarian of to-day may even still discover traces of the foundation near the river bank. The new settlement, as it appeared a few years later, is thus described by Mr. Charles Rodolf, at present living at Muscoda, enjoying the blessings of a green old age near the scene of his early hardships and trials :
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 129 fires within 5 miles of John Young House
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 454 acres in total. None started naturally. 14 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
42
Equipment and vehicle use
24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
22
Arson/incendiarism
14
Railroad operations and maintenance
9
Smoking
7
Recreation and ceremony
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Other causes
2
Fireworks
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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of John Young House: 1 producer, 1 past producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Muscoda, the town this property stands in, in 28 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 9 flood, 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 funnel cloud.
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.
A building near Muscoda was destroyed in a fire started by a lightning strike. Isolated thunderstorms moved across southwest Wisconsin during the evening of July 28th. It is believed that lightning hit a nearby pine tree with the resulting fire spreading to the building. The fire was not discovered until the following morning.
Heavy rainfall from multiple rounds of thunderstorms during the middle of April resulted in the Wisconsin River at Muscoda rising into flood stage during the early morning hours on April 18th. The river crested in minor flood stage on April 19th during the early morning before falling below flood stage during the morning on April 21st.
Runoff from rain and melting snow pushed the Wisconsin River out of its banks in Muscoda. The river crested around a half foot above the flood stage at 9.55 feet on April 24th.
The combination of melting snow and rainfall in late March and early April pushed the Wisconsin River out of its banks at Muscoda for a short period on the 16th. The river crested less than a tenth of a foot above the flood stage at 9.07 feet.
Heavy rains in the middle part of September across parts of Wisconsin produced flooding along the Wisconsin River at Muscoda. The river exceeded the flood stage from September 28th through the remainder of the month. The river crested over a half foot above the flood stage at 9.56 feet. This was the first time since 1993 that the Wisconsin River at Muscoda had exceeded the flood stage.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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