Editing Chelsea, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
The six by seven mile square that would become Chelsea was first [[Surveying|surveyed]] in 1861 by a crew working for the U.S. government. Then in April 1862 another crew marked all the [[Section (United States land surveying)|section corners]] in the [[survey township|township]], walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with [[Gunter's chain|chain]] and [[Solar compass|compass]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Land Survey Information|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/SurveyInfo.html|publisher=Board of  Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=May 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Field Notes for T32N R1E|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=PLSS&twp=T032NR001E|work=Original Field Notes and Plat Maps, 1833-1866|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=May 31, 2011}}</ref> When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
<blockquote>''The Surface of this Township is generally rolling and considerably Swampy. Timber principally [[Tsuga canadensis|Hemlock]] mixed with [[Betula alleghaniensis|Birch]] [[Sugar maple|Sugar]] [[Spruce]] (?) [[Larix laricina|Tamarac]] [[Thuja occidentalis|Cedar]] and [[Eastern White Pine|White Pine]]. It is watered by numerous Small Streams which unite and form two of considerable size one running in a Southerly direction and the other running NW and becoming a tributary of [[Chippewa River (Wisconsin)|Chipewa river]]. The Township on the whole would not be very well adapted to agricultural purposes.''<ref>{{cite web|last=Daugherty|first=William E|title=Interior Field Notes (Apr. 1862)|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=article&byte=1420870&isize=L&twp=T032NR001E|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=3 June 2011}}</ref></blockquote>

In the early 1870s the [[Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–1899)|Wisconsin Central Railroad Company]] built its line up through the forest on the east side of the six-mile square that would become Chelsea. To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for 18 miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd sections. The railroad built two stations in this town: [[Whittlesey, Wisconsin|Whittlesey]] and Chelsea.<ref name="Martin">{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Roy L.|title=History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54)|date=January 1941|publisher=The Railroad and Locomotive Society, Inc.|location=Baker Library, Harvard Business School|pages=41–42}}</ref> Sawmills were built near each station and logging commenced.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rusch|first=Gordon|editor-last=Kalmon|editor-first=Lars|title=Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - Vol 1|date=January 2012|publisher=Taylor County History Project|page=3|chapter=Taylor County Logging and Lumbering}}</ref>

When Taylor County was formed in 1875, Chelsea was six miles north to south, but it spanned the full width of the county, including all modern towns from [[Pershing, Wisconsin|Pershing]] to [[Greenwood, Taylor County, Wisconsin|Greenwood]]. An 1880 map shows some sort of road roughly following the course of modern highway 13 up to Chelsea station, then heading west along the course of modern Quarter Lane.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dahl|first=Ole Rasmussen|title=Map of Chippewa, Price & Taylor Counties and the northern part of Clark County|year=1880|publisher=The Milwaukee Litho & Engr Co.|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/1046/rec/3}}</ref>

The 1911 plat map of the six mile square that would become Chelsea shows much of the same as 1880, but the road/track along Quarter Lane had disappeared. By then the whole east and south edges of the town had a fairly complete grid of roads and dirt tracks. In addition, that same area was starting to fill in with settlers holding parcels 40 acres and up. Outside that band on the east and south, roads are sparse and much of the land is in larger chunks, with Medford Mfg. Co, Wisconsin Central Railway, and M.H. Mould the largest holders. The map shows a sawmill at Chelsea and a [[brickyard]] south of Whittlesey.<ref>{{cite book|last=Paetzold|first=C.H.|title=Map of Taylor County|date=1911|publisher=C. Paetzold and Koehler Land Company|location=Medford, Wis.|url=https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/maps/id/20301|access-date=October 23, 2023|chapter=Plat map of T32N R1E}}</ref>

That Langenberg brickyard dug [[clay]] onsite from a layer ten to twelve feet thick, and formed and fired bricks in "permanent up draft kilns." The brickyard produced 200,000 bricks in 1898, the year it opened. A writer from the Wisconsin Geological Survey observed, "This is one of the best common clays that has come under my observation."<ref>{{cite book|last=Buckley|first=Ernest Robertson|title=The Clays and Clay Industries of Wisconsin|date=1901|publisher=Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey|location=Madison|pages=211–212|url=https://wgnhs.wisc.edu/pubshare/B007.pdf|access-date=October 23, 2023}}</ref>

In 1933 much of the northwest quarter of Chelsea was designated part of the [[Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest|Chequamegon National Forest]]<ref>[http://www.stateparks.com/nicolet.html "Nicolet National Forest"]</ref>

As logging operations declined, the railroad continued hauling freight and passengers, but that business too eventually dwindled and in 1988 the trains stopped running on this stretch of railroad. The following year, local residents and the railroad agreed to allow use of the railroad bed as a multi-use recreational trail - the [[Pine Line Trail|Pine Line]] - which now runs along the east side of Chelsea.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rusch|first=Robert P.|editor-last=Kalmon|editor-first=Lars|title=Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - volume 2|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Taylor County History Project|pages=5–8|chapter=The Twelve Railroads of Taylor County, Wisconsin}}</ref>