Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Elroy, WI

Elroy is a city in Juneau County, Wisconsin, located along the Baraboo River, and its population was 1,356 at the 2020 census.

According to local tradition, Elroy got its name by accident — settlers first chose 'LeRoy,' but another Wisconsin community already had that name, so they simply switched the first two letters and adopted 'ElRoy.'

Elroy's post office has been in operation since 1862, and the city was once an important railroad hub where both the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Omaha Road kept roundhouses and operations.

Elroy is the eastern terminus of the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, the 32-mile trail widely credited as the first rail-to-trail conversion in the United States — the state bought the abandoned rail corridor in 1965 and opened the trail to the public in 1967.

The Elroy-Sparta trail passes through three hand-dug railroad tunnels, the longest of which stretches 3,833 feet, and it was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1971.

Elroy is a genuine trail crossroads: in addition to the Elroy-Sparta Trail, the '400' State Trail toward Reedsburg and the Omaha Trail toward Camp Douglas also begin in the city, all following abandoned rail lines.

At the 2010 census Elroy had 1,442 people in 590 households — down from the city's historic peak of 1,850 residents back in 1940, during its railroad heyday.

Elroy is the hometown of Tommy Thompson, who served four terms as Governor of Wisconsin and later became U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and his brother Ed Thompson was also an Elroy resident.

Norwegian Nobel Prize-winning novelist Knut Hamsun lived in Elroy for a time in the early 1880s, during his years in the United States.

Students in Elroy attend the Royall School District, whose schools are located in the city.