Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Lake Mills, IA

Lake Mills is a city in Winnebago County in far northern Iowa, close to the Minnesota state line, and it is the county's second-largest city after Forest City.

The first settler in the Lake Mills area was Joshua Thomas in the 1850s, and C. D. Smith incorporated the community in 1869.

Lake Mills took its name from a grist and lumber mill built on the shore of Rice Lake, on whose shoreline the town was laid out.

Many of Lake Mills' settlers were Scandinavian, and the town became home to the largest settlement of emigrants from Nissedal, Norway, outside of Norway itself.

The Norwegian American Family Monument, a life-size bronze sculpture of an immigrant family dedicated in 1995, stands in a six-acre park at the edge of Lake Mills.

Richard Sears, founder of the Sears, Roebuck retail empire, worked as the railroad depot agent in Lake Mills from 1880 to 1886 before his watch business grew into the famous catalog company.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner spent part of his early life in Lake Mills, and former Iowa governor Terry E. Branstad also has roots in the town.

During the first half of the 20th century Lake Mills depended on the Cool Spring Canning Company for jobs, and when the plant closed in 1957 residents launched a community drive to attract new employers that became a model of small-town economic development.

The 2020 census counted 2,143 people in Lake Mills, living in 965 households.

Lake Mills is served by the Lake Mills Community School District, and Lake Mills Senior High School teaches grades 9 through 12 in the city.