About Phelps

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The history of Phelps is inextricably intertwined with the fur trading and logging days of 18th and 19th centuries, and later, with the tourism trade. The first Europeans in the area were the French fur traders. Inhabited by Chippewa Indians, Lac Vieux Desert was a crossroads for the fur trade.

The town's heritage is strongly Finnish and reflects the logging industry. Renamed Phelps in 1912, the town was originally known as Hackley. The present day township has an official population of 1.350 (2000 census). It has a total area of 108.9 square miles, of which 94.9 square miles is land and 14.0 square miles is water. The town lies nestled within the 650,000-acre Nicolet National Forest.

In 1863, congress authorized the building of Military Road from Fort Howard (Green Bay) to Fort Wilkins at the top of Keweenaw County, Michigan. The first settler, in 1852, was G. L. Draper. Military Road ran next to Draper's trading post along the shores of Lac Vieux Desert. In 1905, the village of Phelps was developed on North Twin Lake. The town's biggest growth spurt came in 1906-12 when people of the Finnish heritage moved to the area to farm and work in the lumbering mills and forests. Phelps, one of the last areas to be logged in northern Wisconsin, boasted a lumber camp on the east shore of Big Twin Lake.

The headwaters of the mighty Wisconsin River as well as the Deerskin River start right here in Phelps, and other waters flow to Lake Michigan. Just two miles to the north, in Upper Michigan, is the Ottawa National Forest.

Today, Phelps is a growing, forward-looking community blessed with an abundance of natural resources and beauty. Despite its small size, the School District of Phelps has a tradition of providing quality education. Our students score at or above the state and national academic testing levels.