Wire / Atlas

What we know, and how

11,873 claims · 3,994 links

This is the whole record behind Wausau Wire: every place, organization, school, lake, station and public body we have established across central Wisconsin, and for each one, the public document that proves it. Follow any fact to the sentence, the source, and the line a verifier read there.

11,873

cited claims

151

sealed sections

3,994

evidenced links

3,953

citations

384

source domains

59,378

records gathered

Of those claims, 11,380 were confirmed against the primary public record they cite (95.8%), and 493 are flagged because the cited source states no value for them. 0 are refuted. 6,929 carry the exact line they came from, and 76 were corrected during verification and kept on the record rather than quietly fixed.

The shape of it

A link exists here only where a claim or a public record says so. Nothing is inferred from a name, and nothing is drawn to fill a gap.

3,994 evidenced links, by what they connect A three column flow. Every number in it counts LINKS, never things: one organization can both serve a place and employ in a county, so it appears in two links. Every band is drawn to its exact count, and the same counts are listed in the table below this figure. What we holdThe rule that placed itWhere it was placed 735 links from lakes use "is in" 395 links from rivers and streams use "is in" 369 links from public office holders use "holds office in" 298 links from municipalities use "is part of" 291 links from named communities use "is in" 201 links from sources use "covers" 186 links from public schools use "is in" 180 links from public schools use "has a mailing address in" 165 links from organizations use "serves" 152 links from landmarks use "is in" 127 links from historic places use "is in" 120 links from historic places use "is recorded under" 95 links from broadcast stations use "is in" 95 links from broadcast stations use "is licensed to" 76 links from organizations use "is a public body of" 68 links from organizations use "serves" 68 links from organizations use "is a major employer in" 55 links from annual events use "is in" 46 links from public libraries use "is in" 44 links from public libraries use "has a mailing address in" 41 links from trails use "is in" 40 links from organizations use "is headquartered in" 40 links from public office holders use "holds office in" 24 links from health center sites use "is in" 24 links from health center sites use "has a mailing address in" 22 links from organizations use "is a public body of" 14 links from organizations use "has a mailing address in" 8 links from counties use "is part of" 8 links from federal recreation areas use "is in" 6 links from annual events use "is organized by" 1 links from organizations use "serves" 735 "is in" links point at a county 395 "is in" links point at a county 369 "holds office in" links point at a municipality 298 "is part of" links point at a county 291 "is in" links point at a county 201 "covers" links point at a county 186 "is in" links point at a county 180 "has a mailing address in" links point at a municipality 165 "serves" links point at a municipality 152 "is in" links point at a county 127 "is in" links point at a county 120 "is recorded under" links point at a municipality 95 "is in" links point at a county 95 "is licensed to" links point at a municipality 76 "is a public body of" links point at a municipality 68 "serves" links point at a county 68 "is a major employer in" links point at a county 55 "is in" links point at a county 46 "is in" links point at a county 44 "has a mailing address in" links point at a municipality 41 "is in" links point at a county 40 "is headquartered in" links point at a county 40 "holds office in" links point at a county 24 "is in" links point at a county 24 "has a mailing address in" links point at a municipality 22 "is a public body of" links point at a county 14 "has a mailing address in" links point at a municipality 8 "is part of" links point at a region 8 "is in" links point at a county 6 "is organized by" links point at an organization 1 "serves" links point at a region Lakes 735 links Organizations 454 links Public office holders 409 links Rivers and streams 395 links Public schools 366 links Municipalities 298 links Named communities 291 links Historic places 247 links Sources 201 links Broadcast stations 190 links Landmarks 152 links Public libraries 90 links Annual events 61 links Health center sites 48 links Trails 41 links Counties 8 links Federal recreation areas 8 links is in 2,155 links holds office in 409 links is part of 306 links has a mailing address in 262 links serves 234 links covers 201 links is recorded under 120 links is a public body of 98 links is licensed to 95 links is a major employer in 68 links is headquartered in 40 links is organized by 6 links Counties 2,892 links Municipalities 1,087 links Regions 9 links Organizations 6 links
Read it left to right: a thing, the rule that placed it, the place it was placed against. Every number counts links, not things, because one organization can both serve a town and employ in a county. No band exists without a claim or a public record behind it.
The same figure as a table
Every evidenced link, counted by what it connects and the rule it was made under.
Thing Rule Linked to Links
lake in county county 735
stream in county county 395
person holds office in place 369
place part of county 298
community in county county 291
source covers county 201
school in county county 186
school mailing city place 180
org serves place 165
landmark in county county 152
historic site in county county 127
historic site recorded under place 120
broadcast station in county county 95
broadcast station licensed to place 95
org body of place 76
org serves county 68
org major employer in county 68
event in county county 55
library in county county 46
library mailing city place 44
trail in county county 41
org headquartered in county county 40
person holds office in county 40
health center in county county 24
health center mailing city place 24
org body of county 22
org mailing city place 14
county part of region 8
recreation area in county county 8
event organized by org 6
org serves region 1
Total 3,994

County by county 8

Start here. Each county page opens onto every town, body, school and feature anchored to it.

Everything, by kind 3,479

A public id is a Census GEOID, a USGS GNIS number, a Wikidata item, an NCES school id or a National Register reference: the thing that turns a name into a node somebody else can look up.

Where the claims live

The corpus is 151 sealed sections. Open any one to read every claim in it, with its source and the line quoted from that source.

Sealed sections grouped by what they cover.
Sections Examples Claims Verified Flagged
Town profiles 113 City of Abbotsford, Clark and Marathon Counties, Wisconsin: Place Profile, City of Antigo, Langlade County, Wisconsin: Place Profile, City of Colby, Clark and Marathon Counties, Wisconsin: Place Profile 5,668 5,253 415
Reference indexes 19 Central Wisconsin Largest Employers, Chambers, Visitor Bureaus, and Economic Development Organizations, County Business Patterns (Census) 4,842 4,813 29
Regional sections 11 Central Wisconsin Economy and Major Employers, Central Wisconsin Hospitals and Health Systems, Central Wisconsin Recreation and Natural Assets 770 738 32
County profiles 8 Clark County, Wisconsin: County Profile, Langlade County, Wisconsin: County Profile and Municipalities, Lincoln County, Wisconsin: County Profile 593 576 17
All sections 11,873 11,380 493

Open the evidence ledger, all 151 sections.

Who the record cites 384 domains

  • www2.census.gov 837
  • nces.ed.gov 211
  • doa.wi.gov 134
  • wisconsinhistory.org 131
  • en.wikipedia.org 102
  • prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com 94
  • mds.wi.gov 73
  • imls.gov 70
  • transition.fcc.gov 58
  • tigerweb.geo.census.gov 58
  • wausaupilotandreview.com 54
  • nps.gov 43
  • westonwi.gov 42
  • dnr.wisconsin.gov 35
  • centralwinews.com 35
  • visitwausau.com 30
  • stevenspoint.com 30
  • wirapids.gov 30
  • ploverwi.gov 29
  • kronenwetter.org 26
  • mosinee.wi.us 26
  • rothschildwi.com 24
  • data.hrsa.gov 23
  • ncwrpc.org 23

The 24 most cited of 384. Newsrooms and public bodies we gather from daily are listed separately, on sources.

What we do not know

A record that only shows its wins is not a record. These are the open questions, the rules that could be wrong, and the things we hold back.

Flagged claims

493 of 11,873 claims are flagged. Each one was re-fetched at its source and the source states no value: a suppressed Census cell, a page that never published the number, a roster with a blank seat. They are kept on the record and marked, never filled in.

Filing addresses, not locations

382 links say where an address is filed, not where a thing stands. Wisconsin is full of a city and a town sharing one name, and a school's mailing city or a National Register filing picks the incorporated place. Those links are labeled as what they are, on every page they appear.

Names we could not resolve

  • trail name not a trail (county total, org, or river) 13
  • recorded_under no-match 10
  • public-body place no-prefix 7
  • mailing_city ambiguous 5
  • recorded_under ambiguous 4
  • mailing_city no-match 3

A name that could mean two places, or no place we hold, makes no link at all.

Open contradictions

  • One office, two different holders recorded 1
  • Death notices pointing at a person record since removed 5
  • One name, two different birth dates 1
  • A title that may not be a person's name 6

An audit runs over this graph on every build. It fails on a link with no evidence, and it reports these for a human to rule on. There are currently 0 failures.

The people we do not list

The graph holds 24,741 person records derived from published death notices. They are candidates, not established facts, and they are private individuals, so the atlas carries none of them: no names, no dates, and no per-town count that would rebuild the list. What the memorial pages already publish stays where families put it, on obituaries.

The 409 people who do appear here all hold a named public office, and each one arrives with the claim that says so.

How to read this

Every fact carries its source

A claim on any page here links to the document it came from, and where the verifier quoted a line, that line is printed. 5,574 of the 6,929 quotes were read at the source by an independent pass.

The record is sealed

The corpus is content-hashed with SHA3-256 and chained section to section, so a change to any claim changes the hash. It was sealed September 19, 2026.

1d6429811a96334f5f919bb6feacdc940d767cc0af5f241cd73e5499430503f3

Two clocks, and they differ

The graph was built September 20, 2026. The archive behind it keeps growing every hour, and was counted September 24, 2026: 50,862 news, 1,202 events, 5,357 obituaries, 22 notices, 804 government, 1,131 opinion. So the archive number is newer than the graph number, and neither is rounded.

The footprint is Central Wisconsin (Wausau Wire footprint): Marathon at the core, Lincoln, Langlade, Portage, Wood, Shawano, Taylor, Clark at the edge. Browse the towns for the reader's view of any place in it.