Linden, WI

Linden is a southwest Wisconsin village inside the larger Town of Linden in Iowa County. The village grew from a lead discovery in 1827, when Irish peddler Patrick O’Meara found an outcropping near a creek while gathering firewood. The first camp was called Peddler’s Creek; the name later became Linden as the settlement took shape. Miners from Cornwall and Yorkshire joined the early population, and the surrounding diggings tied the village to the wider lead region.

Mining lasted well into the twentieth century—the last Linden mine closed in 1975—but the village’s story never depended on ore alone. The Linden United Methodist Church, built in stone in 1851, remains a visible piece of the old settlement, and the area’s farms still carry dairy, beef, hog, and grain operations. Linden High School joined the Iowa-Grant district in 1959, while the former grade school years ended with the move to a central building near Livingston. With 504 residents in 2020, Linden is a compact village where a creek, a church, and a mining camp tell the story.