Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Readstown, WI

Readstown is a village in Vernon County in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, standing on the Kickapoo River at the junction of U.S. Highways 14 and 61 with State Highway 131.

The village is named for Daniel Read, who platted, surveyed and named the settlement and received an 80-acre land grant in 1849 from President Zachary Taylor for his War of 1812 service.

Daniel Read built a mill and dam on Read's Creek, creating a mill pond, and when he died in 1862 he was buried in the village cemetery on land he himself had donated.

Readstown was incorporated in 1898, near the turn of the century when its village government was formed.

The village calls itself the 'Heart of the Kickapoo Valley' because it lies close to the midpoint of the valley, and visitors use it as a base for paddling the Kickapoo River and fishing the area's Class 1 trout streams.

The Kickapoo River is flood-prone at Readstown — flood stage there is 11 feet, and the river reached a record 23.17 feet on August 29, 2018.

A hydroelectric plant once operated on the river at Readstown; after a fire it was rebuilt in 1950, but it ceased operations in 1970 and its dam was demolished in 1980.

Readstown's population peaked at 584 in the 1940 census, and the 2020 census counted 376 people, down from 415 residents in 186 households in 2010.

The first school in Readstown was taught by Mrs. Bound, according to the 1884 History of Vernon County.