Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Catawba, WI

Catawba is a village in Price County in northern Wisconsin, located within the town of Catawba along U.S. Route 8.

Before the railroad arrived around 1884, the Catawba area was forested wilderness cut only by rivers and Indian trails, surveyed by the federal government in 1847 and 1855, with a few Swedish immigrants settling near the south fork of the Jump River.

Local tradition says the name Catawba comes from Catawba wine — supposedly after a crew of railroad gandy dancers overindulged on it, or after lumberjacks drank it at a saloon in nearby Kennan.

The railroad brought lumber camps, settlers and a sawmill, and Catawba's first school was operating by 1892 and expanded to two rooms in 1902.

By 1902 Peter Hammer's Red Birch Lumber Company had a sawmill running in Catawba, and Hammer and his wife Isabelle also ran the Commercial Hotel and a company store serving lumber workers.

The Catawba State Bank opened in 1916, the town hall was built in 1921 — it now also houses a museum — and the village formally incorporated in 1922.

The highway through Catawba eventually became U.S. Route 8 and was paved in 1949, replacing the rough road that had joined the railroad through town.

Catawba's population peaked at 290 in 1940 and fell for decades, but it rebounded 28 percent between 2010 and 2020, reaching 141 residents at the 2020 census.

The village is remarkably spread out for its size: its 141 residents live across about 4.46 square miles of land, a density of only about 32 people per square mile, and the 2010 census counted just 60 households.