In 1863, this area was a wilderness accessible only by primitive trails through vast virgin pine forest, where Charles W. Dikeman and his partners built a mill amid thousands of acres of prime timberland. Because travel to and from work was difficult, employees and their families lived in dwellings beside the mill, and a store, tavern, and later a school were built to serve them. With no navigable waterway nearby, shingles, lumber, and bark had to be hauled overland to the village of Kewaunee on a somewhat improved but still very primitive road system, and from Kewaunee these forest products were shipped by lake to Milwaukee and Chicago. In the late 1870s, the community became an important social center in the county after the Dikemans completed a new residence near the mill that was described as a palatial mansion, surrounded by landscaped grounds with spring-fed fishponds and a conservatory that provided flowers throughout the year. The house had many amenities and conveniences usually found only in or near large cities, not in a small, fairly isolated milling center. As the local timber supply was depleted, however, the community's future faded. As the land was cleared, the county's economic base shifted from forest products to agriculture and other industries, with farms and cheese factories replacing the forest and sawmills. Improved roadways reduced travel time and eliminated the need for many crossroad communities that had once been essential, and communities that could not adapt declined or disappeared entirely, as Dikeman did.