Cuba City, WI

Cuba City is a Grant and Lafayette county city on State Highway 80 in southwest Wisconsin. The 2020 census counted 2,138 residents, with most of the city in Grant County and a smaller section in Lafayette County. John Amie Merle and Mathais Comstock bought the original 160 acres in 1836, Jack Deboard put up the first building in 1846, and the roadside inn called The Western became the first business. The town was first called Yuba, then became Cuba City in 1869 when the mail service ran into confusion with other Cubas.

The Main Street presidential shields are the city’s signature local touch: the project began as a 1976 bicentennial “Parade of Presidents” and now runs from George Washington forward beneath the City of Presidents name. Cuba City High School gives the community its school center, while Highway 80 ties the city to the farms and small towns of the Grant–Lafayette line. Cuba City’s local scoop is a small border-crossing city with a quirky presidential main street and a name that changed because the mail got tangled.