Bruce, WI

Bruce is a Rusk County village of 781 residents at the 2020 census, and its first chapter is tied directly to the railroad. The Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railroad reached the site in 1884, the same year the village was platted. Bruce took its name from A.C. Bruce, a lumberman who held land here and reportedly ran a logging camp where the present school stands. The early town grew around trains, timber, and the businesses that followed them.

You can still get the feel of that beginning at the Village of Bruce Historical Museum. The old MacArthur Hotel has been in continuous use since 1902 by the same family, while the museum keeps the village's railroad and logging years in view. Bruce sits at the meeting of U.S. Highway 8 and Wisconsin Highway 40, with the Blue Hills close by. It is the kind of place where the route into town and the story of town arrive together.