Village of Port Edwards, Wood County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

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The Village of Port Edwards is an incorporated village in Wood County, Wisconsin (Census place GEOID 5564175).

The village covers 5.98 square miles of land and 1.231 square miles of water, centered near 44.357256, -89.850363.

The Village of Port Edwards is a separate municipality from the Town of Port Edwards, which had a 2020 census count of 1,356.

The village lies northeast of and adjacent to the Town of Port Edwards along the Wisconsin River.

GNIS records Port Edwards as a populated place in Wood County at 44.3507979, -89.8654036.

GNIS records the Port Edwards Flowage (feature name "Port Edwards Flowage 5405") as a named reservoir in Wood County at 44.3499649, -89.8534588.

The village's comprehensive plan says Port Edwards was originally known as Frenchtown, with origins in the 1830s sawmill of Grignon and Merrill that was later converted to a paper mill.

The community was renamed from Frenchtown in 1869 in honor of local mill owner John Edwards.

Lewis M. Alexander, John Edwards's son-in-law, converted the Edwards sawmill company into a paper mill company, completing the conversion in 1896.

The Wisconsin Valley Railroad gave the village its first rail connection in 1873; passenger service ended in 1970, and freight service continues.

Until the mill closed, Port Edwards was considered a company town in which most residents worked for a single company.

The 2020 census counted 1,762 residents in the Village of Port Edwards.

The Wisconsin DOA January 1, 2025 official estimate for the village is 1,820.

The Census Bureau's July 1, 2024 estimate for Port Edwards village is 1,759 (2020 estimates base 1,781).

The village home page gives a 2020 census population of 1,739, which does not match the Census count of 1,762.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of total population is 1,776 (margin of error +/-256).

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year median age is 40.5 years (margin of error +/-3.5).

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year median household income is $73,625 (margin of error +/-$13,296).

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year median value of owner-occupied homes is $140,900 (margin of error +/-$12,219).

Port Edwards is governed by a Village President and six trustees.

Betsy Mancl is Village President.

Trustees are Nick Flugaur, Rick Hess, Eric Hummel, Rob O'Connor, Lonn Radtke and Joe Zurfluh.

Diane Tremmel is Clerk/Treasurer at the Municipal Building, 201 Market Avenue (P.O. Box 10), open weekdays 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.; phone 715-887-3513.

The village has a Village Administrator office (715-887-3511, [email address]); the current administrator is not named on the site, and the April 2024 reuse plan listed Duane Gau as interim administrator.

The village runs a municipal court; Hon. Patrick McGrath is Municipal Judge and Kim Holcomb is court clerk.

Agendas, minutes and packets are searchable on the village's Agendas & Minutes page, each committee links to its own records, and residents can subscribe to notices.

The village's official website is vi.portedwards.wi.gov, with staff email at portedwardswi.gov.

Recent village notices include a Safe Routes to School Plan (May 2026), the 2026 Board of Review and Open Book, an informational meeting on a possible wake boat ordinance (April 2026) and a CDBG grant public hearing (March 2026).

Village bodies include a Plan Commission chaired by Betsy Mancl, a Police & Fire Commission chaired by Scott Stewart, and a Zoning Board of Appeals chaired by Leo Thomasgard.

The Port Edwards Police Department at 211 Market Avenue is led by Chief Brandon Abbott (715-887-3030).

Port Edwards is served by the Port Edwards School District (NCES 5511970), a PK-12 district of 3 schools with 435 students in 2024-25, at 801 2nd Street.

Public schools with a Port Edwards address are John Edwards Middle and John Edwards High (801 2nd St.) and Port Edwards Ed Heuer Elementary (951 5th St.).

The Port Edwards School District calls itself the 'Home of the Blackhawks' and runs an Environmental Learning Center.

The village lies entirely within the Port Edwards School District, which covers about 60 square miles including the Town of Cranmoor and parts of the towns of Seneca and Port Edwards.

Domtar closed the Port Edwards paper mill in 2008; at closure it provided more than 500 direct jobs and about 800 indirect jobs, down from more than 1,200 direct jobs at its peak.

DMI bought the mill property in 2013 and began demolition in 2014, which stopped in 2015 when the contractor went bankrupt; a warehouse on the site has operated for Milk Specialties Global since 2017, and DMI planned to resume demolition in 2024.

The reuse plan notes that WEDC designates Wood County a distressed county and that the former mill study site lies in an Opportunity Zone.

The village's 2015 comprehensive plan named ERCO Worldwide as the village's largest employer.

Wood County had 1,717 business establishments and 34,252 paid employees in 2023, led by health care and social assistance (9,944) and manufacturing (5,677).

WFHR 97.5 in Wisconsin Rapids carries Port Edwards high school football, with broadcasts scheduled October 2 against Rosholt and October 10 against Christian Life School.

The Wisconsin Rapids City Times, a weekly on the Wausau Wire source roster for Wood County, publishes local news at wrcitytimes.com.

The Port Edwards Volunteer Fire Department is at 431 Letendre Avenue under Fire Chief Dustin Lease; in 2015 it had 27 volunteers and served the village plus contracted parts of Seneca, Cranmoor and the Town of Port Edwards.

The village has no public library of its own; residents use county libraries, and the John Edwards Middle/High School library is open to residents on a limited basis.

The Alexander House, a center for art and history at 1131 Wisconsin River Drive, was founded in 1990 by the Alexander Charitable Foundation to house the Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company's historical collection and is open 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

The South Wood County YMCA's Port Edwards facility was built in 1957 on the former L.M. Alexander estate, and the YMCA runs Camp Alexander on Nepco Lake.

The village counts six park facilities and a cemetery; Ripple Creek Park at 670 Ver Bunker Avenue covers about 30 acres with a pond, wooded trails, three softball diamonds, a disc golf course and a dog park.

Edwards-Alexander Park at 210 2nd Street covers 2.3 acres with a reservable indoor shelter, a splash pad and a historic gazebo.

Nepco Lake Park, a Wood County park, is among the parks the village lists for residents.

A waterfront trail along the Mill Pond, hydro spillway and Wisconsin River through the former mill property has been engineered but awaits funding.

Recreation.gov lists the Wisconsin River islands in Wisconsin Rapids as a federal recreation area nearest Port Edwards village.

The village organized a 2026 village-wide garage sale with a published map.

The Alexander House schedules rotating exhibits, including a woodturning show through September 29, 2026.

Public Works at 431 Letendre Avenue, supervised by Ben Martinson, runs the water and wastewater utilities, streets, sewers, parks, the cemetery and yard-waste recycling.

The former mill site was powered by Domtar-owned hydro dams until 2014, when the dams were disconnected from the site and new Alliant Energy distribution lines were installed.