Cochrane, WI

Cochrane is a Buffalo County village with 423 people at the 2020 census. Its settlement began with the railroad in 1885, when the first depot was built on land owned by Peter Schnugg and the place was initially called St. Petersburg. After a railroad conductor was injured there, the town was renamed Cochrane in his honor. The village incorporated in 1910 as local officials sought a formal government that could provide fire protection and other services.

The tracks moved grain for area farmers and brought mail, passengers, machinery, coal, and dry goods. In 1886, John R. Hofer built the first hotel, while the Rohrer brothers opened a mercantile store and a hardware, furniture, and undertaking business across the street. Lightning destroyed both stores in 1911, and both were rebuilt. Cochrane's later civic map includes Goose Lake Memorial Park, created from a pond in 1966, and the Cochrane-Fountain City School District, whose teams are the Pirates. The local thread is a village whose name, first businesses, and public services all grew out of a rail stop in Buffalo County's river-and-bluff country.