Van Dyne, WI

Van Dyne is a Fond du Lac County CDP in the Town of Friendship, built around a road and rail line. Daniel Van Duyne platted the community in 1866, the same year a post office opened and the railroad between Fond du Lac and Oshkosh stopped there. The north-south road later became part of the Yellowstone Trail and Wisconsin Highway 175 before settling into county-highway duty. That gives Van Dyne a nice local sequence: founder's name, post office, railroad stop, then an early automobile route. The quick read is a crossroads community whose map still carries several generations of transportation history.