Biron, WI

Biron grew from a Wisconsin River sawmill: Faye and Draper built the first mill in 1839, and Francis X. Biron bought it in 1846. The site was later surveyed for the Grand Rapids Pulp and Paper Company, and the village was incorporated in 1910. Paper has remained the defining local industry. The mill produced its first paper in 1896 and now operates as ND Paper’s Biron Division, tying the village to the Wisconsin Rapids paper-making region and to a working riverfront.

Village life has its own civic infrastructure. Biron Community Hall, opened in 1920, included an auditorium, stage, motion-picture equipment, bowling alley, billiard room, reading room, and council chambers; the current municipal building and fire station carry that institutional thread forward. Gateway Park provides a river view and fishing pier, while the 230-acre Biron Business Park adds space for manufacturing, highway commercial, and mixed-use development. Biron is mapped by three connected layers: the Wisconsin River and mill, the village’s hall and fire department, and a newer business park along Highway U.