Arpin

History

The first village of Arpin was started around 1890 when the John Arpin Lumber Company built a sawmill a mile east of the present village, on Little Hemlock Creek. John Baptiste Arpin and his twin brother Antoine came from Quebec and had been logging in this part of Wisconsin since the 1860s. By 1890 they were working with John's sons. To give an idea of their scale of operations, John Arpin's house built in 1890 still stands in Wisconsin Rapids - the beautiful Queen Anne-styled house on First Street facing the river. Back in that first Arpin, a store, a post office, some homes, a Presbyterian church, and a creamery grew up near the sawmill. The first postmaster was John's son, J. Z. (later acquired by the Wisconsin Central) built its line from Rapids to Marshfield a mile to the west of the first village. Martin Pfyle started another little village a mile south on the rail line. It had a store, a cheese factory, a saloon, and homes. However, the railroad had built its depot where it crossed the road that is now County N - not at the sawmill or the second village - but where the current village is. Near that depot a store started, and a saloon, and a blacksmith's shop. Gradually the businesses and most of the homes shifted from the other two villages to cluster around the depot. In 2008 Wisconsin Public Television produced a program, Chosen Towns, which features interviews with people remembering Arpin and other similar settlements. By the 1920s dairying had surpassed lumbering. Four cheese factories were operating near the village. The Dairyman's State Bank had started in 1914. The town had also added various churches, a hardware store, a meat market, a boot and shoe store, a lumber yard, a garage, a restaurant, and a hotel and livery and taxicab stable.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land. North Wood County Park is located nearby.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  1,477
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,446
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,400
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,342
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,329
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,239
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,205
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,129