Potosi, WI

Potosi is a Grant County village in southwest Wisconsin, with 646 residents in the 2020 census. It sits in the Driftless Area close to the Mississippi River and the Wisconsin section of the Great River Road. The hills, farm valleys, and river routes give the village a different shape from the flat prairie towns farther east. Potosi is also the center of the Town of Potosi, so the village streets serve a larger rural area beyond the incorporated line.

Potosi’s strongest local landmark is the restored Potosi Brewery, which operated from 1852 to 1972 and reopened in 2008 as a brewery, brewpub, and museum complex. The site now houses the National Brewery Museum, the Potosi Transportation Museum, and the Great River Road Interpretive Center. The village also calls itself the Catfish Capital of Wisconsin and marks that identity with an annual Catfish Festival and fish fry. Potosi is a Wisconsin village where lead-belt hills, Mississippi River travel, a nineteenth-century brewery, and a summer catfish tradition meet.