Woodruff, WI

Woodruff is a census-designated place within the Town of Woodruff in Oneida County, Wisconsin. The 2020 census counted 891 residents. U.S. 51 meets Wisconsin Highways 47 and 70 at the village, putting the post office, shops, lodging, Howard Young Medical Center, and northwoods roads on the same junction. Rhinelander is about 22 miles southeast, while the broader Minocqua-Woodruff area supplies the regional service and employment network.

The town was established in 1888 and named for the Woodruff-Macguire Lumber Company, whose operations helped shape northern Wisconsin's early economy. Today the CDP is the built-up center inside the larger town boundary, with forest, lakes, seasonal cabins, and year-round homes spreading beyond it. The concrete World's Largest Penny remains the odd roadside landmark people use to place Woodruff, while the crossroads still organize ordinary errands and northwoods travel. Woodruff is a small service village inside a much larger lakes-and-timber town, with the highway junction doing much of the connecting work during an ordinary week.