Balsam Lake, WI

Balsam Lake is a Polk County town whose 2020 population was 1,416. The Village of Balsam Lake sits inside the town, and the unincorporated community of Lykens is part of the same larger map. The village gives the place its public face: it is the county seat, with county and village government concentrated around Main Street, while Balsam Lake itself spreads across 2,054 acres with roughly 65 miles of shoreline, islands, and bays. That mix makes the name do double duty—government center on land, resort landscape on the water.

Unity School District keeps the wider community connected, with elementary, middle, and high schools in one campus about three miles north of the village. The lake supplies the obvious recreation—fishing, boating, and shoreline time—but the town is also a working rural area with roads, homes, and smaller settlements beyond the village. Balsam Lake's Freedom Festival and county-seat calendar bring people back to the same central streets, while Lykens reminds you that the town is more than the incorporated village. It is a layered place: lake country, county government, schools, and scattered town roads all sharing one name.