About the Town of Minocqua

While Minocqua looks and feels like a small town, it’s enormous in terms of geographic size. Encompassing 178 square miles, it’s five times the size of a standard township and contains nearly 190 miles of town roads. Minocqua’s equalized property valuation is enormous too, totaling around $3 billion.

Many of those same reasons President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited Minocqua are why visitors love to visit here today — to experience a getaway in God’s Country with recreational opportunities galore and services and amenities they appreciate.

Whether you’re here for a visit or here for a lifetime, thanks for choosing Minocqua!


MHLT Elementary School

Schools

Public schools in Minocqua include Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk Elementary School (“MHLT”), which is 4K-8th Grade and Lakeland Union High School (“LUHS”), which is Grades 9-12. MHLT serves students from four towns and LUHS serves students from twelve towns.

Trinity Lutheran School offers education for pre-K through 8th grade.

Nicolet College of Rhinelander has an outreach center in Minocqua called Nicolet College-Lakeland. It brings Nicolet College programming and services to Minocqua area communities.

Kemp Natural Resource Station is a University of Wisconsin-owned research and teaching facility situated in Minocqua and operated by the University of Wisconsin.


Marshfield Clinic-Minocqua Center

Health Care

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise is the quality of health care offered in our community. Cities many times our size do not have the medical facilities you will find here in the Minocqua area. Marshfield Clinic-Minocqua Center was recently expanded to over 100,000 square feet. The facility includes a state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center and more than 70 physicians providing primary care, surgery and medical specialties.

Just a couple blocks away from Marshfield Clinic-Minocqua Center is Howard Young Medical Center, an acute care 99-bed hospital with ICU and CCU units as well as a renal dialysis unit. The facility is named after its benefactor, Howard Young, an art dealer from New York who had a residence on Lake Minocqua and was the uncle of actress Elizabeth Taylor.


Minocqua Winter Park

Four Seasons Recreation

While long noted for our summer recreational opportunities, Minocqua has evolved into an outstanding four-season destination.

In winter, Minocqua is northern Wisconsin’s snowmobiling hub. From our downtown, riders can literally head north, south, east and west into the scenic wilderness trails of the surrounding state, county, national and private forest lands where hundreds of miles of groomed trails await. Minocqua is the birthplace of the Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs and is serviced by two of the finest snowmobile clubs in Wisconsin: The Minocqua Forest Riders and the Cross Country Cruisers.

We’re also home to Minocqua Winter Park, the Midwest’s premier cross country ski facility with over 6,500 acres of pristine terrain and 75 kilometers of groomed (traditional and skate) trails. Other opportunities at Winter Park include a new tubing hill (complete with rope tow), pond skating and snowshoeing.

Spring in Minocqua means fishing. In early spring ice fishermen dot the over sixty lakes in town, jigging for late ice panfish. In late spring the opening day of fishing season (usually the first Saturday in May) draws anglers from all over the Midwest.

Summertime offers a little something for everyone. We’re home to the nation’s longest-running amateur water ski show: the Min-Aqua Bats. Our lakes offer opportunities for nearly every type of fishing, boating and skiing. The famous Bearskin State Trail runs right into the heart of town for bikers and hikers. Also located downtown is Torpy Park, with its sand beach, tennis courts and sand volleyball court (and ice skating rink in winter). Minocqua also has three excellent summer camps with rich histories and traditions.

Fall in the Northwoods is a time for festivals, like Minocqua’s own Beef-A-Rama at the end of September. Colorama in late September and early October is when Mother Nature really shines with spectacular displays of color. In November, the opening of deer hunting season is practically an official holiday and an important part of our Northwoods heritage.


Minocqua Fire Department

Services & Amenities

The permanent resident population of Minocqua is right around five thousand, but our population grows to many times that size during the summer months. For this reason, Minocqua offers many services and amenities you wouldn’t expect to find in a small town.

For example, the Minocqua Police Department has eleven full-time officers and a 24-hour emergency dispatch center. Minocqua Fire & Rescue operates from a new $3 million fire station. An impressive addition has recently been added to the Minocqua Public Library. And the Campanile Center for the Arts offers musical performances, theater and instruction year-round.

Most of Minocqua is served by high-speed broadband internet. Additionally, there are wi-fi hotspots thoughout town, including three free wi-fi hotspots downtown sponsored by the Town of Minocqua.

Minocqua’s downtown is situated on what is known as the “Island” — only a small strip of land keeps it from being an actual island. The Island is surrounded by Lake Minocqua and contains a developed downtown business district and a residential area on the east side of the Island known as “Rubentown”. The downtown area is where you’ll find the Minocqua Police Department, Minocqua Public Library, Minocqua Town Offices and several Town parks.

In the western portion of town is the Squirrel Lake area and an area known as “Bo-Di-Lac” (name derived from Booth and Diamond Lakes). These areas include many nice recreational lakes and forest lands, along with the outstanding Minocqua Winter Park recreational facility. 

And in the southwest portion of town, you’ll find mile after mile of pure wilderness, timber lands, snowmobile trails, ATV trails, the Cedar Falls Campground and the Willow Flowage Scenic Waters Area.