Shullsburg, WI

The Town of Shullsburg occupies a piece of Lafayette County that can confuse anyone reading a Wisconsin map: the separate City of Shullsburg lies inside the town, and the unincorporated community of Dunbarton is partly within it. That arrangement sits on top of an older lead-mining story. Shullsburg was established in 1827 during the southwest Wisconsin lead rush, and the surrounding ground was worked through the small mines that gave the region its early settlement pattern. Early lead miners even helped give Wisconsin its Badger State nickname.

The best place to see that history is the Badger Mine and Museum in the city, where an 1850s lead mine and mining artifacts show how work was done before the modern industrial era. The town's relationship with the city matters here: the town is the larger rural frame, while the city holds the historic center, services, and museum most people associate with the name. In southern Lafayette County, Shullsburg reads as a mining landscape first and a municipal boundary puzzle second.