Take a historic walking tour of Waunakee created by Waunakee High School students.
To begin, click here.

New Waunakee Maps!

Thanks to all of our community members' donations, we now have almost 1700 photos of historic Waunakee in our digital collection.

The collection includes:
village history slide presentation
village scrapbook
1937 Waunakee High School yearbook
substantial number of photos from the late 1960’s
very old family and class photos, many with no captions

“Historic Waunkee …in pictures” is hosted by Picasa Web Albums

Do you recognize someone or something in the photos?
Email waunakeepubliclibrary@gmail.com, call 608-849-4217, or visit the library.

Do you have historic pictures of Waunakee to add to our digital collection?
We can scan them while you wait... no need to leave them at the library. And if you bring a flash drive, we can give you the digital files to take home with you!

How We Got Here - Origins, Immigration, and Community

Through a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Waunakee Public Library interviewed several members of its community to tell their stories of where their families originated, how they came to the United States, and how they became part of the Waunakee, Wis., community. Taped in July 2011, several members of the Waunakee Community volunteered to have their stories taped. These are their stories.

Watch the fascinating video including immigration stories from local residents.

More tools for historical research
The Dane County Historical Society recently digitized their delicate early plat maps of Dane County. These maps are great tools to research genealogy and history of the Waunakee area. Waunakee is located within Westport township.

LIST OF DANE COUNTY PLAT MAPS:
http://www.danecountyhistory.org/materials/index.html

Westport Township 1861 (note Waunakee was not a village until 1871, but find "LESTER P.O." to see the area north of present-day Waunakee)
Westport Township 1873
(click top left section to zoom in)
Westport Township 1890
Westport Township 1899
Westport Township 1911 (see index for photographs of Dane county schoolhouses and list of merchants in 1911)