Camp Douglas, WI

Camp Douglas is a Juneau County village of 647 people, laid out in 1870 around a logging camp established by James Douglas. The camp supplied wood to steam locomotives, and the village's post office followed in 1873. Rail lines later converged here, giving the small settlement a connection that still shows up in its location along the Highway 12 and 16 corridor. Camp Douglas's history also runs into military history: the Wisconsin National Guard began using 440 acres nearby in 1888, and that legacy became Volk Field Air National Guard Base in 1954.

Community life grew around the transportation network. A high school was in place by 1908, and the 1920 community hall became one of the largest in Juneau County. Banks, a cooperative, and three churches rounded out the village's early twentieth-century core. Volk Field remains the headline institution today, and Camp Douglas's character comes from the way logging, rail travel, local gathering places, and military service have overlapped for generations, all within a village that counted 647 residents in 2020.