Village of Gilman, Taylor County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No primary source names Gilman's largest employer or publishes headcounts.

The village's own channels are its website, email and text alerts and a Facebook page; no designated official newspaper was confirmed.

The municipality is the Village of Gilman, an incorporated village in Taylor County, Wisconsin (Census place GEOID 5529175).

This Gilman is the Taylor County village; Wisconsin also has a Gilman in Pierce County and a Town of Gilmanton in Buffalo County, which these claims do not cover.

The village calls itself the 'Home of the Swinging Bridge.'

The Census also carries the village as a county subdivision with GEOID 5511929175.

The village covers 2.34 square miles of land and no measured water area.

The village's Census internal point is near 45.166194, -90.807217.

The village sits on the western end of Taylor County, 15 miles north of Thorp and Stanley off Highway 29, on the Yellow River.

The village places itself on the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest, with access to Eau Claire and Wausau.

The 2020 Census counted 378 residents in the Village of Gilman.

The Wisconsin DOA estimates Gilman's population at 389 as of January 1, 2025.

The Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimate for Gilman is 381 as of July 1, 2024, from a 2020 estimates base of 380.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of Gilman's population is 463 (+/-107).

The ACS 2019-2023 median age in Gilman is 37.9 years (+/-10.3).

The ACS 2019-2023 median household income in Gilman is $58,333 (+/-$10,143).

The ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes in Gilman is $105,600 (+/-$18,002).

A Village President and a Board of Trustees elected to staggered two-year terms govern Gilman and oversee a staff of six regular employees.

Jane DeStaercke is Village President.

The village lists Dee Bornheimer, Karen James, Mark Person, Cheryl Rosemeyer, Derrick Romig and Russell Baker as trustees.

Candice A. Grunseth is Clerk/Treasurer (715-447-8650, [email address]); the county directory lists Valorie Kulesa as Deputy Clerk/Treasurer.

Village Hall is at 380 E. Main St. (mailing P.O. Box 157), and the county directory describes the hall location as the library.

The Clerk/Treasurer's office is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday; the deputy's hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 9 a.m. to noon.

The village board meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noticed.

Agendas post at the Gilman Municipal Building, the Gilman Post Office and Romig's Hardware; minutes post on the village website, with monthly 2026 minutes through September.

The village moved its September 2026 board meeting to 5 p.m.

Residents can subscribe to email and text notifications from the village.

The village is recruiting residents for a new committee on housing needs and economic development and posted a housing survey on August 6, 2026.

The Gilman Police Department is at 115 West Davlin Street (non-emergency 715-447-5700).

The Gilman School District covers the village.

Gilman School District (NCES 5505280) runs 3 schools from PK-12 and enrolled 360 students in 2024-25; NCES codes its locale Rural, Remote.

Gilman Elementary, Gilman High and eSucceed Charter School all use the 325 N Fifth Ave campus.

The village says the PK-12 system is housed in one building and that a 2004 outdoor athletic complex added a football field and a nine-lane rubberized track.

Gilman School District teams are the Pirates.

The village links businesses to the Taylor County Chamber (Medford Area Chamber) rather than a Gilman chamber.

Gilman Cheese Corporation sponsors Friday music at June Dairy Days.

The village offers a FIX IT grant/loan for businesses through the clerk's office.

For county context, Taylor County had 482 business establishments and 6,986 paid employees in 2023, 2,627 of them in manufacturing.

The Star News, a Central Wisconsin News paper whose history runs back to 1875, covers Gilman; it reported the Gilman Pirates’ football win on September 16, 2026.

The Star News is published by Central Wisconsin News, which says the paper's history coincides with Taylor County's, both born in 1875.

The Western Taylor County Public Library at 380 E. Main St. is part of the Wisconsin Valley Library Service, a group of 30 libraries sharing one catalog.

The Gilman Clinic at 320 East Main Street is affiliated with the Aspirus hospitals in Medford and Wausau; the nearest hospital the village lists is Aspirus Stanley Hospital in Stanley.

The Gilman Rural Volunteer Fire Department is at 315 East McSloy Street.

A post office operates in Gilman and serves as an agenda posting site; village addresses use ZIP 54433.

The village operates a Senior Center offering programs and social activities for older residents.

Gilman Public Works provides water and sewer; Xcel and Jump River Electric provide electric power and NTERA provides telephone service.

The Gilman Village Park, bordered by the Yellow River, has a pavilion, restrooms, concessions, a playground, a baseball diamond, a bandstand and a village campground.

The village says its swinging bridge, more than 100 years old, crosses the Yellow River to the park and is the only swinging bridge left in the state.

The village points visitors to Chequamegon Waters, created by Miller Dam on the Yellow River, completed in 1967, owned by Taylor County and about 4.7 square miles at normal levels.

Nearby attractions the village lists include the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, the Ice Age Trail and the Perkinstown Winter Sports Area and motorized trail.

June Dairy Days is held on the third weekend in June; in 2026 it ran June 19 to 21, with a two-day softball tournament, a Sunday chicken dinner and a parade.

June Dairy Days is co-sponsored by the Gilman Lions, the Community Betterment Association and the Village of Gilman, and showcases western Taylor County including Jump River, Lublin and Perkinstown.

Wikipedia says the Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway reached the site in 1902 and 1903, and the Northwestern Lumber Company platted the first village lots in 1904.

Wikipedia says Gilman incorporated as a village in 1914, started its park with the swinging bridge in 1915, and lost much of its business district to an Easter Sunday fire in 1922.

Wikipedia says Gilman High became the central high school for western Taylor County in the 1950s.