White lumber prospectors explored this site in 1842, settlers established it in 1851, and it was platted as the Village of Wonewoc in 1854. Although long the center of a thriving agricultural district with a vibrant local market, the village was originally a lumber town that shipped hundreds of cars of railroad ties, cordwood, and other forest products each year. It was also home to the celebrated Dode Fisk Circus from 1904 to 1911 and to the Western Wisconsin Spiritualist Camp Association, founded in 1902 and still surviving. Wonewoc lies in the Driftless Area, where there was no glacial activity, and its white fine sandstone, extending underground nearly to Lake Michigan, was named Wonewoc Sandstone by geologists and is said to be like no other sandstone in the world.